[Banshee-List] The Shuffle/Repeat UI

["Scott Peterson" <lunchtimemama gmail com>]

halex and I were have a lively discussion last night about the
 shuffle/repeat buttons in the bottom left corner of the /stable window
 (halex did a patch bringing them to /trunk). My problem with the
 buttons:

 1) Repeat/RepeatSingle/RepeatOff is a three-state button. I'm fine
 with two state (toggle) buttons, but three is, in my opinion, just bad
 UI. Three or more is combobox territory.
 2) http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=348582. I think this is a
 good idea, but there are some problems with the patch I added to that
 bug.
    2.1) It gives the shuffle button four states:
 ShuffleOff/ShuffleBySong/ShuffleByArtist/ShuffleByAlbum. See 1.
    2.2) It is very difficult to visually communicate ideas like
 "shuffle by artist" or "shuffle by album" in a 16x16 icon (see the
 icons I attached to the bug).
 3) The repeat & shuffle buttons are stuck into the bottom-left corner
 of the window, directly below the source list. Buttons near the source
 list should have to do with the source list. Buttons having to do with
 playback should be near the other playback controls. The current
 placement is arbitrary and potentially confusing to users unfamiliar
 with the iTunes convention of shuffle/repeat buttons in the lower
 left.

 My idea:
 http://homepages.nyu.edu/~stp225/shuffle.html

 Please note that the icons in the above demo are for demonstration
 purposes only - I'm sure we can make something prettier (either custom
 icons, or dynamically generating hybrid icons from standard gnome
 icons).

 Combine the shuffle setting with the "Next" button. Give the Next
 button a Firefox-style drop-down arrow from which the user can select
 the shuffle behavior. I think this is a good idea for several reasons:

 1) The shuffle setting is inexorably linked to the behavior of the
 Next button, so it makes sense to merge them.
 2) This is one less button in the UI. The addition of the drop-down
 arrow adds negligible weight to the UI. The drop-down button is also a
 visual concept with which many users are familiar from Firefox and
 other places.
 3) It is likely that a user will immediately spot the drop-down arrow
 on the Next button and experimentally click on it out of curiosity. It
 is therefore very likely that they will discover its purpose and
 behavior. The UI is largely self-explanatory.
 4) The Next button gives us 24x24 pixels with which to communicate the
 "shuffle by artist" and "shuffle by album" behaviors.
 5) No other music player has this UI. It is both original and, as
 previously mentioned, self-explanatory. It will distinguish Banshee.
 6) It's cute.

 This idea does not address the issue of repeating. Please share your thoughts.

 --
 Scott.