Win10 Style [Concepts] [Discussion]

[redwing]

Some mobile players are taking such approach. This is Shuttle+ music player:

[Bee-liever]

As conceptual mock ups, these are very nice.  I especially like the "Most Played Tracks" addition.
But it's only 3 images

• a re-working of the Artwork view
• a full panel version of Now Playing when docked at the bottom of the screen (I think)
• a re-working of the Now Playing panel

How would the LH navigation panel look/work?
What about track details and lyrics in the RH panel?
What appearance would the standard 'Track Details' and 'Album and Track' views take?

Pretty pictures are good.  They help to stimulate creative ideas and discussion, as we are having now.  But don't forget the details have to be worked out, not just a "That looks good, we'll go with that" approach, especially as the discussion has opened up the idea of abandoning all old skins.  As with rounded corners, glass-look borders and gradient contours, minimalist flatness is just another passing design trend too.

[Steven]

How would the LH navigation panel look/work?
What about track details and lyrics in the RH panel?
What appearance would the standard 'Track Details' and 'Album and Track' views take?

This is my interpretation of the proposal so far:
- there would be no left navigator; instead you would use tabs (MUSIC PLAYLISTS NOW PLAYING etc in the first screenshot). On opening a new tab, there would be a grid of choices to select what category you want to view
- the entire row where the tabs, icons and search box could be docked at the top for space constrained screens
- the left side of the main panel (artists in the first screenshot) could have Artists/ Albums/ Genres/ etc and also the Library Explorer as selectable where it says "Album Artists v", except when PLAYLISTS is active then the left panel would show the playlists; COMPUTER is active then it would show the folders; DEVICES would auto-open as a tab but i need to think some more about that one.
- also optionally the left panel could still allow a picture (artist, album cover etc) down the bottom left and perhaps the now playing list could also be optionally docked on the bottom left as well
- by default the main panel would not have the column browser panels but they could be optionally enabled
- Album and Tracks and Track Details layouts would still be supported without any change, but perhaps renamed (selectable where it says "Albums v" in the screenshot)
- for the right panel I see the first screenshot as a new view "Playing Album v". You could also choose "Playing Tracks v" which is similar to now where it would show the now playing list and have one panel beneath that has a button in the same style as "Playing Album v" in the screenshot with the choices: "Lyrics v"/ "Track Details v"/ "Artwork v". In addition to "Playing Album v" and "Playing Tracks v", there would also be "Selected Tracks v" which would show the selected tracks where the now playing list shows and the artwork/ lyrics/ track details for the selected tracks
- thats as far as i have thought about it for now.

[hiccup]

These are all great concepts and ideas.
What is confusing me personally a little bit is that I am not sure if this topic is about creating some general Windows 10 look and feel so MusicBee will mainly look and feel 'contemporary' and 'modern' enough, or that this is about intrinsic platform changes that Windows 10 will be bringing soon.

For as far as I understand Windows 10 will be strongly improving on adapting smartly to either desktop, tablet or smartphone usage.
A well designed application will then probably look and behave quite differently depending on what technical platform it is being used.
I am personally quite enthusiastic on how this might turn out, and am anticipating on be using both a Windows 10 PC, tablet and smartphone before the end of the year. (all due respect to Apple and Google, but not a big fan)

When I look at developments in software design and websites currently, it bothers me that more and more websites today are striving for a design that is indeed beautiful to use on a tablet (or phone), but is underestimating what I am able and wanting to do on a desktop PC.

So I hope that development of MusicBee will not go in that direction where it is very important that it looks contemporary enough, and trying to please both PC and tablet users somewhere in the middle.

On my desktop I mainly want all the information and options of an application available as fast and easy as possible.
On my tablet or phone I wouldn't mind when many advanced options were hidden or not even be available at all.

So what I am probably trying to say here; please don't make too many changes for using MusicBee on a desktop PC, since it is close to perfection already.
Any effort in this area might better be spend on developments for tablet (and possibly smartphone).
(and probably would also bring you a shitload of well-deserved £ when done right)

[silvestreccf]

Have you ever use or saw tha Zuze Player? Bee is it in the righ way, improve the interface in a complete software...

Now days Bee its a player that can do many things other dont, I say that for sure, I test more da 50 Playes,
Change interface wont affect his power.

[endeavour1934]

I have a question though. Can you confirm "Music" "Soundtracks" etc are tabs (and not a predefined set of all the choices that might have been found in the left navigator)? And clicking +, how to you see the user selecting what they want to be displayed in the tab? (perhaps the main panel fills with all the choices in a grid such as: Music, AudioBooks, Podcasts, Playlists etc for the user to choose)
I like having the left panel in first screenshot because i can imagine when Playlists is selected all the playlists display there or if Computer is selected all the computer folders display without having a special panel opening like in iTunes12 does for playlists

Maybe "Music", "Soundtracks", etc should be filtered Music Library tabs.

Not sure about this one, I think it still needs more thinking.

Regarding the fourth "artist view" idea, one way would be to separate the current group by settings in artwork view to album and all sorts of artists. Then "artwork view" will be always grouped by square album picture, while "artist view" could be grouped by (album) artist and (sort) composer with round artist picture. If you click on an artist picture, then it would open up the 2nd image of the proposal.

My idea was something like this:

Should be easy, just a inserting a header whenever the user is viewing a single Artist. The content panel doesn't even need changes
Also, a new view (albums + sidebar) could work for all the library, not just artists.

Note: Maybe the Artist Header should be smaller?

DEVICES would auto-open as a tab but i need to think some more about that one.

That's probably one of the hardest parts to resolve

- for the right panel I see the first screenshot as a new view "Playing Album v". You could also choose "Playing Tracks v" which is similar to now where it would show the now playing list and have one panel beneath that has a button in the same style as "Playing Album v" in the screenshot with the choices: "Lyrics v"/ "Track Details v"/ "Artwork v". In addition to "Playing Album v" and "Playing Tracks v", there would also be "Selected Tracks v" which would show the selected tracks where the now playing list shows and the artwork/ lyrics/ track details for the selected tracks

@_@
I have to read all this paragraph again, I'm still confused 
BTW, the right panel on the images is just showing the current "Album and Tracks" view.

And a mockup of how the "Albums v" button could work:

Each panel should have one "Title Button", with their respective options.

So I hope that development of MusicBee will not go in that direction where it is very important that it looks contemporary enough, and trying to please both PC and tablet users somewhere in the middle.

On my desktop I mainly want all the information and options of an application available as fast and easy as possible.
On my tablet or phone I wouldn't mind when many advanced options were hidden or not even be available at all.

So what I am probably trying to say here; please don't make too many changes for using MusicBee on a desktop PC, since it is close to perfection already.
Any effort in this area might better be spend on developments for tablet (and possibly smartphone).
(and probably would also bring you a shitload of well-deserved £ when done right)

Most of the changes are not drastic, I think.
When I talk about a more "touch oriented interface", right now I'm just talking about this:

Left: Current Version / Right: Proposed.
Just playing with the margins of some elements could make a big difference for some touch users. Other Windows apps have already done this, like Google Chrome.

Yes, it's still a Win32 app, so as you've said, it doesn't make sense to go "full touch" and responsive design, that's what the new Universal apps are for. But as a Win32 app I think MusicBee could benefit from being a bit more touch-friendly in Windows, specially now that Universal apps on "desktop mode" behave almost like a Win32 app (can be windowed, opens normal dialog windows, etc).

[Syni]

I know it's just a concept but where can I find a skin that looks like this?
I can't find modern v2 anywhere. Was the icon part of the concept as well? Cause it's so sexy 

[endeavour1934]

I know it's just a concept but where can I find a skin that looks like this?
I can't find modern v2 anywhere. Was the icon part of the concept as well? Cause it's so sexy 

Yes, the icons are also a part of the concept  and based on the newest builds of MS apps for Windows 10.

[Bee-liever]

What is confusing me personally a little bit is that I am not sure if this topic is about creating some general Windows 10 look and feel so MusicBee will mainly look and feel 'contemporary' and 'modern' enough, or that this is about intrinsic platform changes that Windows 10 will be bringing soon.

As Steven only recently said:

But MusicBee isnt available on a mobile device and most likely never will be.

I'm assuming that is still how it is and it's more about the current limitations of the UI in terms of being touch-friendly and adaptability to different screen sizes and dpi depths.

- there would be no left navigator; instead you would use tabs (MUSIC PLAYLISTS NOW PLAYING etc in the first screenshot). On opening a new tab, there would be a grid of choices to select what category you want to view

..but in my concept I also tried to make a more touch-friendly interface, as Microsoft is really pushing hard for this (Surface, Touch enabled computers, universal apps...). I think it's still mostly a point&click interface, but it's more usable with touch input, thanks to bigger margins between elements.

With the increasing use of touch interfaces (I've seen the high number of downloads of my touch-friendly skins) and the push for responsive design, maybe the incorporation of an home screen would be an idea to replace the LH panel.


(made with elements from endeavour1934's mock-up and the Bootflat UI kit)

Icons and links to optional parts of MB could be added as required eg. a tile for the CD ripping panel or the Skins selection with a small image of the actual skin displayed.

This would also allow you to have your most popular and frequently used views in the tabs (I'm assuming here that they would still be changeable as they are presently) but still have quick access to less frequently used options

[phred]

On my desktop I mainly want all the information and options of an application available as fast and easy as possible.
On my tablet or phone I wouldn't mind when many advanced options were hidden or not even be available at all.

YES!  What he said.
I use MB on my desktop for "work" (managing my music collection) and my devices for listening.

So what I am probably trying to say here; please don't make too many changes for using MusicBee on a desktop PC, since it is close to perfection already.

+1

[redwing]

My idea was something like this:

Should be easy, just a inserting a header whenever the user is viewing a single Artist. The content panel doesn't even need changes
Also, a new view (albums + sidebar) could work for all the library, not just artists.

Note: Maybe the Artist Header should be smaller?

Yes, that's how I understood. But how can the user "view a single artist"? It would require some sort of artist selector to browse all available artists and select one. That's why I suggested splitting the current artwork view into two separate views. Also, the view won't fit to any categories other than artist as all those web links are for exploring a particular artist.

[silvestreccf]

endeavour1934 you are a "watershed"  and I love That!!!
Do you Remember some time ago when you ask about some new function, to make this software much more dynamic to create greats skins?

The problem here its that people migrate from MediaPlayer, winamp to Bee, a different concept.
I use all available player, I can ensure MusicBee its the best, But I want o Nice player, for work or whatever.

endeavour1934 your work its perfect...congratulation.




 
 

[endeavour1934]

My idea was something like this:

Should be easy, just a inserting a header whenever the user is viewing a single Artist. The content panel doesn't even need changes
Also, a new view (albums + sidebar) could work for all the library, not just artists.

Note: Maybe the Artist Header should be smaller?

Yes, that's how I understood. But how can the user "view a single artist"? It would require some sort of artist selector to browse all available artists and select one. That's why I suggested splitting the current artwork view into two separate views. Also, the view won't fit to any categories other than artist as all those web links are for exploring a particular artist.

Currently, you can view a single artist by:
- Clicking on an artist name on the thumbnail browser
- Clicking on an artist name on the column browser
- Right click on an album/song and search > search artist 'x'
and specially:
- If you group albums by artist, you should have an "artist browser"

Maybe there are other ways.

[Xyzzy]

I see this goes in places in bad directions (not regarding that all aesthetics of the new MS ui is discussable):
- mimicking touch apps for whatever purpose makes less place for actual data
- the above also makes desktop application handling much less convenient and non-standard in places
- using ALL CAPS is a bad idea (maybe it has its use on tiny displays - not here)

[endeavour1934]

Alternative versions: CAPS / No Caps / Small