Author Topic: Few minor ui improvements  (Read 44383 times)

Steven

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3. Refresh the icons. My proposal http://i.imgur.com/5SbuR.png these icons are from http://p.yusukekamiyamane.com/ with some modifications (grab them here). The best solution imo would be to let skin creators ship their own icons with skins if they choose to. Also it would be much easier if the icons embedded in the xml file were pngs instead. Maybe the skins could be in a zip file with a different extension (like .mbs - musicbee skin) so the skin could be applied by opening the file. In this zip file there would be both the plain xml skin and the bitmap xmlc skin + Icon folder with custom icons.
i am happy to update the icons (a quick look, the only one i didnt like was the audiobooks) but could i ask one thing. Could you increase the height of the playlist icons to the full 16px. I used to have the musicbee playlist icons at 15px to make the spacing better but i recently increased the node spacing for the left navigator by 1px (so for most people its now 18px rather than 17px) and 15px makes the icon look slightly too small
I havent considered your requests as yet and will reply later
Last Edit: May 19, 2012, 01:47:44 PM by Steven

HHM

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+1 to mikebo's ideas, +1 to Steven for his patience and will to still improve what's already marvelous:)

Steven

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2. Fix "MainPanelMargin.Left" and right preference in skins - Default value 0 leaves a 1px gap between the window border and the panel, this is very bad on the right side where the scrollbar is (it violates Fitts' Law). This can be fixed by setting -1 margin, but then the panel overlaps the skinned window border (in restored state). So maybe make it look like -1 sans overlapping at 0. (this is more of a bug really)
i am not seeing what the issue or mistake is with this one.
The default margin is 2 and setting it to 0 correctly sets the margins from what i see. There is also a border around the main panels so perhaps that is what you are seeing. Maybe a screenshot showing what you mean would help.
For setting the left/right margin to -1, it does push the main panels border into the windows frame area and i have made a change to handle that

For 7, i agree is looks a better without the icon and infact i like the suggestion of having the DJ mode displayed as one of the shuffle options on the main player. The only problem is for the bitmap skins which wont have support for that icon. I might be able to generate an icon automatically for those but depending on how much is involved i might not do this one
Last Edit: May 20, 2012, 01:16:34 PM by Steven

Steven

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Steven

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for 7 i have implemented an addition auto-dj state for the shuffle button
ie. on/off/auto-dj
however because that requires its own icon, the functionality is not enabled for bitmap skins. I will add support for that in the skin creator next but only the skins that implement the icon will have this functionality

Alexis

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Loving the auto-Dj idea, as it just did not quite fit in my  mind as a left pane option but rather a mode similar to Theatermode.

Also Really liking the new Icons idea that say as much as their respective title.

Really nice suggestions (those that I understand anyway)  and  major recognition to Steven's open-mindedness regarding improvements.

Most of us tend to be ruled by our egos and as a result lose vision and experience failure.   I am truly amazed by how receptive  Steven has been regarding suggestions  whether they are good and bad.  (thankfully he weeds out the bad  ;D  )

A very nice forum!
They are not lazy... just more efficient.

Steven

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updated .exe to support auto-dj toggle from the shuffle button and as mentioned its only supported for bitmap skins that provide an auto-dj shuffle icon
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

Steven

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silasje1

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Thanks for all implementations :)
HDMI GTX570->YAMAHA RX-V471->DALI ZENSOR 1

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WMP 12 Skin

beeing good

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Steven, sorry if this has been mentioned already but on the topic of the new autodj/shuffle button, I noticed that it says [DJ] after Now Playing when it is enabled which is great but it might be good to have [Shuffle] in the same place when that is enabled? It would make it all more consistent and clear.

mikebo

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Do you have a background in software design?
Unfortunately not, it's just that these little things bug me. (i've read few articles about ui design but i'm no expert)

i am happy to update the icons (a quick look, the only one i didnt like was the audiobooks) but could i ask one thing. Could you increase the height of the playlist icons to the full 16px. I used to have the musicbee playlist icons at 15px to make the spacing better but i recently increased the node spacing for the left navigator by 1px (so for most people its now 18px rather than 17px) and 15px makes the icon look slightly too small
I havent considered your requests as yet and will reply later
First of all thank you for a speedy implementation.
I'll modify the playlist icons asap. Is it something in particular you don't like about the audiobooks icon?

2. Fix "MainPanelMargin.Left" and right preference in skins - Default value 0 leaves a 1px gap between the window border and the panel, this is very bad on the right side where the scrollbar is (it violates Fitts' Law). This can be fixed by setting -1 margin, but then the panel overlaps the skinned window border (in restored state). So maybe make it look like -1 sans overlapping at 0. (this is more of a bug really)
i am not seeing what the issue or mistake is with this one.
The default margin is 2 and setting it to 0 correctly sets the margins from what i see. There is also a border around the main panels so perhaps that is what you are seeing. Maybe a screenshot showing what you mean would help.
For setting the left/right margin to -1, it does push the main panels border into the windows frame area and i have made a change to handle that
What i meant is that when the window is maximized you should be able to click on the scrollbar when the pointer is on the edge of the screen. This is possible when the side margin is -1 and that should be imo the default. I would go even further and disable this setting altogether since there is no aesthetic benefit to it and it hinders usability.
But since you've fixed the overlapping issue i'll just update my skins.

Steven, sorry if this has been mentioned already but on the topic of the new autodj/shuffle button, I noticed that it says [DJ] after Now Playing when it is enabled which is great but it might be good to have [Shuffle] in the same place when that is enabled? It would make it all more consistent and clear.
I agree


One more thing: tooltip for the shuffle button says [on/off/auto-dj] though the actual order is [off/on/auto-dj]. Same for repeat

Edit: i've updated the playlist icons https://www.dropbox.com/s/8hkr9vv4pzgxkvh/icons.zip

Edit 2: Steven can you add [bg2] and [bdr] attributes to skin elements: "Panel.Body.Highlight" ; "Panel.Body.Lowlight" ; "Content[TrackDetail].Body.Highlight" ; "Content[TrackDetail].Body.Lowlight" and [bg2] to "Menu.DropDown.Highlight" so we can have a selection similar to windows 7

Last Edit: May 26, 2012, 01:46:18 PM by mikebo

Blinghound

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These skin attributes would be brilliant for my future skins! So many good ideas have been cropping up recently!

Steven

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ive added support for borders on
"Panel.Body.Highlight" ; "Panel.Body.Lowlight" ; "Content[TrackDetail].Body.Highlight" ; "Content[TrackDetail].Body.Lowlight"

although you could set bg2, it wont work well eg. drawing star ratings in the main panel, drag/dropping over nodes in the left panel.
I will probably revisit adding support for it, but its too much effort for now. I guess if you make the bg2 difference small then perhaps it would be acceptable in the left panel elements but definitely not the main panel

Steven

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i've added the following icon elements (assign them a base64 string from the bitmap)
MusicLibrary   (already is available)
BookmarksIcon
PodcastsIcon
RadioIcon
AudiobooksIcon
VideoIcon
InboxIcon
PlayHistoryIcon
DownloadsIcon
PlaylistNowPlayingIcon
PlaylistAutoDjIcon
PlaylistIcon
PlaylistAutoIcon
PlaylistMixerIcon
UpcomingReleasesIcon

its in the next update

silasje1

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Great! Thanks for the good work Steven
HDMI GTX570->YAMAHA RX-V471->DALI ZENSOR 1

Dutch Translation

WMP 12 Skin