New Mini Player

[Steven]

my current thinking is to at least have a "modern" layout option which will have the metro buttons and album picture, approx 40-50px in height.
As to whether to additionally support some sort of custom skinning so you can do anything you want, i'm just not sure if the effort to build that support justifies the amount of use it would get (i am only talking about customisation skins for the mini-player).
So far there doesnt seem to be a lot of interest based on the replies in this topic so at the moment i am leaning towards only doing an optional metro type mini-player

[SimonBRT]

Personally, I would echo ma_t14's comments.  Like the idea of improvements and a new 'metro' look and feel but realistically I actually very rarely use the mini player.  If I need to change song I use the taskbar menu or the now playing pop-up, for everything else I am happy just to maximise the main window.

[Alumni]

My idea for a possible mini player design:

[redwing]

my current thinking is to at least have a "modern" layout option which will have the metro buttons and album picture, approx 40-50px in height.

That sounds great!

As to whether to additionally support some sort of custom skinning so you can do anything you want, i'm just not sure if the effort to build that support justifies the amount of use it would get (i am only talking about customisation skins for the mini-player).

In my opinion, supporting fixed TM for mini player mode would be much easier and more useful.
If the support was made for skin instead of TM, anybody who wants to skin a custom mini player would have to skin everything (main/compact player). And even for users, switching between skins for different mode would give a big headache.

For fixed TM for mini player, just a few things will be needed.

- ability to hide top border
- click and drag feature for moving the player
- "always on top" feature

So far there doesnt seem to be a lot of interest based on the replies in this topic so at the moment i am leaning towards only doing an optional metro type mini-player

I'm sure people will get interested and start to use a lot if the new metro type mini-player comes out just like the new compact mode.

[fossii]

Hello,

I downloaded the latest version from steven (in this thread), but still have the old mini player setup..?

Can someone help?

Thanks in advance!

[redwing]

I downloaded the latest version from steven (in this thread), but still have the old mini player setup..?

Let me see what you have from the latest version. Would you post a screenshot of the mini player?

[fossii]

Hy,

using 2.3.5079 , here is a screenshot - its the old layout, isn't it?

[mikebo]

It's the new layout, it's just that the buttons are hardly visible with my skin (i'll fix tthat soon), try another skin

[redwing]

Yes, you got the new one.

The old one (2.2 final) looks like this:

[fossii]

oh, i thought that there would be a bigger difference between old and new mini player, like we have at compact player.
i am sure steven will make some improvements.

Thanks for your help!

[lnminente]

Some things:
-I think some proposals here go nearer to a compact player or a fixed TM than to a miniplayer. The area used by miniplayer has to be very limited as it will be always on top of other windows.

-The really good thing of having customized player controls for the main player turns in confusion when changing to mini-player. It takes almost the same area and usually is located at the same position. In one of them i can click at the bottom for seeking, in the other not. In one i have full width seek bar, in the other not. One has stop button, the other not. And i don't want to imagine how it feels for people who have player controls positioned at the right, it has to feel like being in a completely different program.
So for avoiding that confusion i see myself using some tricks like "always on top" like in the following capture:



-A problem, a solution/wish: If my memory doesn't fails me, the compiled skins .xmlc are like .xml but with customized player controls. That's great, but when you want to move to a darker or clearer skin it obligates you to forget about that customized player controls you liked. Would be great making panel colors independent to player controls disposition. Using the skins as usual, but having the ability of choosing a skin for your player controls, so we don't have to readapt to the new player controls and their locations which may not fit well in our screens.


-From that wish above, hability for choosing one skin for miniplayer too, so we could choose the same one than in main player or one adapted with the same disposition.

[Bee-liever]

the mini player is my player of choice when doing everything else except just listening to music or updating/editing my library.

while I won't go as far as lnminente and say that it needs to be fully bitmap skinnable, I do believe that more skinning attributes need to be available as sometimes the colour combinations that are pulled from the main skin are not optimal.  Often leading to a compromise in what you want to achieve in the main panel, but still keep it legible in the mini-player.  An option to have the player controls located LH/RH would be useful when using those bitmap skins that do have RH controls.

a couple of mock-ups for a metro option in the horizontal layout

with a spectro, the hidden options available on mouse-over

and for a vertical "widget style" layout

closed - classic style

this would be basic view with least amount of info

open - metro style

each section would be optionally displayed
wavebar not progress bar
if "progress bar at bottom" option was used - it would move that panel to just above the open/close bar
full controls option adds bar under player controls
artwork/artist display option
spectro option
if "show ratings"/"show love" options are enabled - they are in open/close bar

not necessary to have dividing lines, background could be blended. Lines are just to show how options could be easily slotted in or out.

FWIW - that's my suggestions  

[mikebo]

When the current mini player is docked there's a lot of wasted space. In this concept i used that space to display upcoming songs.


I've included the current mini player on the right for scale.

In this mockup the mouse pointer isn't over it, so only essential information is visible, upcoming songs are transparent to move the focus to the playing song.
With the pointer hovering over the player other buttons become visible, upcoming songs opaque. Hovering over a specific song reveals an 'x' icon over the album art to remove the song from the queue.


This could be the mini player in the floating state


and on mouseover


This concept still needs some work, i still need to figure out where to put things like rating and such, but first i want to know what you guys think about it.

[Bigmelwalter]

Mikebo

That floating mini player with the hover ability would be great for music bee. Especially in Windows 8 & 8.1. I would love if the colors, trim & styles would change based on the actual album colors & genre.

[ma_t14]

When the current mini player is docked there's a lot of wasted space. In this concept i used that space to display upcoming songs.


I've included the current mini player on the right for scale.

In this mockup the mouse pointer isn't over it, so only essential information is visible, upcoming songs are transparent to move the focus to the playing song.
With the pointer hovering over the player other buttons become visible, upcoming songs opaque. Hovering over a specific song reveals an 'x' icon over the album art to remove the song from the queue.


This could be the mini player in the floating state


and on mouseover


This concept still needs some work, i still need to figure out where to put things like rating and such, but first i want to know what you guys think about it.

Love your concept and would definitely want to see what you can come up with next.

p/s
You have a fan here, your work never ceases to amaze me  

...
So far there doesnt seem to be a lot of interest based on the replies in this topic so at the moment i am leaning towards only doing an optional metro type mini-player

As redwing said, people change opinions about things when some "blink" (but also improved usability) is involved. I sure did with the compact player, the rework made me want to use it even though I never imagined myself using it before