Author Topic: Win10 Style [Concepts] [Discussion]  (Read 221434 times)

Xyzzy

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Can someone clarify what problems are going to be fixed by the new layout?
hopefully it looks cleaner and for the new user, it will default to a much simpler layout. For existing users based on the discussions so far you will still have the same functionality as today. My expectation is the confusion that is quite often reported regarding "selected tracks" vs. "playing track" in the Now Playing panel will be eliminated. There will be improvement for artist navigation and a new album oriented view for the now playing panel. I anticipate being able to simply the layout options which again can be a challenge to some new users.
Overall I hope it will be a cleaner and more obvious interface with some good new functional additions


Yes, these are good reasons.

Fe. I have always had issues with 2-level Group by/Sort by idea, plus navigation and state changes in the main panel(s) still don't work quite naturally for me.


late

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I'm really liking the concept art, but I'm just afraid that Musicbee might make a turn towards more touch oriented interface. And seeing what happened with W8 and W8.1. I don't believe that that might be a good idea.

On one hand I don't mind the simpler interface, it'll be user friendly to new users who don't have experience or don't care and just wan't the player working. But us 'Veteran' MB users are used to the fact that we can modify MB to hell and back, everything (well close to everything) is customizeable.

I can't really see myself using the Artist thumbnail browser, as I already sort my tracks by the tracktitle instead of Artists name, it looks like a mess but I've been doing it the past 10y starting from WMP.
The left sidebar browser on the other hand is a must for me, as I have a few podcasts I like to listen to as well as some Radio stations. These could be combined to the tabs, but again I can't see myself using them too much.

These are my opinions on the matter and should be taken as such.

tl;dr: I'm on board this new design look, as long as the old customization options are still there.

vpsaxman

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I'm really liking the concept art, but I'm just afraid that Musicbee might make a turn towards more touch oriented interface. And seeing what happened with W8 and W8.1. I don't believe that that might be a good idea.

On one hand I don't mind the simpler interface, it'll be user friendly to new users who don't have experience or don't care and just wan't the player working. But us 'Veteran' MB users are used to the fact that we can modify MB to hell and back, everything (well close to everything) is customizeable.

I can't really see myself using the Artist thumbnail browser, as I already sort my tracks by the tracktitle instead of Artists name, it looks like a mess but I've been doing it the past 10y starting from WMP.
The left sidebar browser on the other hand is a must for me, as I have a few podcasts I like to listen to as well as some Radio stations. These could be combined to the tabs, but again I can't see myself using them too much.

These are my opinions on the matter and should be taken as such.

tl;dr: I'm on board this new design look, as long as the old customization options are still there.

AFAIK, making the interface simpler while keeping the extended customization seems to be the idea here. I don't think there's any indication in these screenshots or discussion that MB is going to end up being a touch interface. If anything, it seems a touch friendly UI would be an alternative view or something.

endeavour1934

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As I've said earlier, it's just making it a bit more touch friendly in some places, not making a fully touch interface (that would require at least 40px separation between items!). I think it should look better and people should at least be able to use it with touch devices.

Some people say that it won't show enough information. But for comparison, let me show you a list of... list spacing measured in pixels (at 100% scaling with default font size) :P

MusicBee (Now Playing) - 19px
Windows Media Player - 20px
Windows Explorer - 21px
iTunes - 22px
eztv (Torrent site) - 22px
MusicBee (Extended Album View) - 24px
iTunes (Extended Album View) - 25px
kickass (Torrent site) - 27px
Windows 8.1 Music App (TOUCH) - 50px

As you can see, currently MusicBee tops the list, it's even more condensed than a file explorer.
I'm not saying that it should jump to a touch interface (40-50px), maybe just to something between 22-25px.
In the end you're still looking at 2+ hours of playlist (instead of 3+) without scrolling.
Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 01:54:20 PM by endeavour1934

klint

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Hi
Good to see MusicBee still moving ahead :)

Maybe it has already been said (I haven't read all posts): clicking the Playlists would populate the left panel with the playlists (and also the Music and Inbox nodes so its easy to drag files from the library into a playlist, ***but also the Podcasts node for the same reason***).

Thanks

Steven

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for details on how this and other GUI changes will be implemented see: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=15050.
please feel free to continue the discussion on this "Win10 Style [Concepts] [Discussion]" topic for points raised which are more high-level and still useful irrespective of the implementation detail
Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 09:01:01 PM by Steven

Iowaseven

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How about having the option to have (relativity) huge artist thumbnails in thumbnail browser (like the size available in artwork view), with the text fields inside of the artwork, rather than to the right of it.

slimpyman

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can the tabs open also be different "music"?  I have like 3 libraries.   one video game music, one classical, and one of all others.   in its current implementation, it would be cool if the "locked tabs" werent relative of the current active library.   it would be awesome to switch libraries by just pinning the tab of the current library im looking at.   currently, the music tab shows only the active library and you have to do the right-click switch library to activate the other library.

Pingaware

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can the tabs open also be different "music"?  I have like 3 libraries.   one video game music, one classical, and one of all others.   in its current implementation, it would be cool if the "locked tabs" werent relative of the current active library.   it would be awesome to switch libraries by just pinning the tab of the current library im looking at.   currently, the music tab shows only the active library and you have to do the right-click switch library to activate the other library.

If you use them all regularly, have you tried using filters instead of separate libraries?
Bold words in my posts are links unless expressly stated otherwise.

Bee-liever

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In conjunction with physcoapept's comment here and Steven's first implementation mock-up {http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=15050.msg89829#msg89829} (which I think is a lot better than the second idea),  maybe a wireframe-type border simulating the active areas would be good for old and new users alike.


Last Edit: February 10, 2015, 06:24:37 AM by Bee-liever
MusicBee and my library - Making bee-utiful music together


phred

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+1
I feel that will really help (especially) new users with configuring the layout.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here


Poofox

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Ok I've got one idea to contribute here.  One thing that bothers me about the current UI is that we can't display the waveform up top and also see the song info, as with the progress bar.  

So my suggestion is to just put that text right over top of the waveform with color inversion as an option.  

edit:
change header
Last Edit: February 13, 2015, 12:17:54 PM by Steven