Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Reconceptualizing the UI

[Thomas Lunde <tlunde mac com>]

I already offered y'all the 1,000 words, but here's what I was trying to
say:

http://www.lunde.net/thomas/2004/rhythmbox/mockup-tlunde-1.jpg

Sorry about the cruddy hand drawn circle to indicate a pop-up menu.  I
left in the disclosure triangles, but the more I look at it, the more I
think that perhaps that show/hide action is better left to a menu item
and/or a key command.  The Search box moved to the bottom to more
strongly tie it with the Browser/Track Info area.  Similarly, the length
of the Library/Playlist selected moved up to the same line as the pop-up
menu to indicate that relationship.  Also, this fits on a 1024 screen. 
(Although I think the font is bigger than it need be... perhaps with
something closer to 10 or 12 point type, 800x600 would be do-able.)  If
the Track Information area is hidden (and thus, a Track column in the
Browser window is used to select/edit individual tracks), I think that a
640x480 screen would even be possible.

The hazy tracks indicate uneditable items in the past which have been
played.  The black line indicates the current play point.  This reflects
a theoretical Preference for a 50/50 split between past and future in
the Play Queue track display list.  Note the different columns in the 
Queue and the Track Information areas. I accidently cut out the thumb in
the scrollbar for the TI area; just use your imagination.  ;-)

If the Queue track listing and the Browser areas are closed (via the
menus), this would look almost identical to the current Rb interface
(without the Sources Side Bar).  The only real difference would the
pop-up menu to indicate the set of tracks which may be played.

On Sat, 2004-05-22 at 01:50, David Hammerton wrote:
> I'm just going to throw something in to the mix here, which has been 
> discussed sporadically several times:
> 
> Network music sharing.

Yes, please!

> I've mentioned several times on here my intention to have RB use my 
> http://craz.net/programs/itunes/libopendaap.html to enable it to access 
> iTunes shares. So it would be good if any UI design could allow for 
> this. Considering on a large network one may have up to 100-odd shares 
> available, each may have any number of playlists.
> In iTunes these show up in the source list, the playlists are available 
> as collapsed tree list things against their entry.

In my proposed UI, they could show up in the pop-up as a separate
section:

> > ---------------
> > Music Library
> > ---------------
> > Jukebox Mode
> > ---------------
> > Playlist 1
> > Playlist 2
> > Best of the 60s
> > Pop Favs
> > Bach's Best
> > Etc.
> > ---------------
> > New Playlist...
> > ---------------
Network Share 1
Network Share 2
Etc.
-------------------

and the playlists available on each system could be sub-menus off of
each share.  100 items (network shares) would make for a long pop-up
menu, but the sharing (at least in iTunes) depends on Rendezvous which
is limited to single subnets so there will be a much smaller number of
available shares in most cases.

Similarly, an iPod or other portable music device could be detected (via
Project Utopia) and slotted onto the bottom of that pop-up menu.

thomas