Re: [Banshee-List] Minor Alpha Comments

[Allan Day <allanday fastmail fm>]

> >  *The notification pop-up*
> >
> >
> >     
>
> I've appreciated it. It tells me how quickly I need to respond to get
> it out of my way or if I need to ignore it because I can't get to it
> quickly enough. That has been an annoyance in other pop-up
> notifications. I can see how it might be confusing, but with as fast
> as it moves and being that it comes up at the beginning of the song,
> the confusion can't last very long. The context would rule out it
> going to the next song at the end of the animation's cycle. 
Once you understand what it's there for, it is useful. The problem is, I 
think, that there isn't anything there to signify what the countdown 
timer means. You could figure it out after you've seen it in operation a 
couple of times (though I have to admit, it took me longer than that :) 
), but the question is - should that be necessary? Shouldn't what it 
does/means be immediately obvious?

What is needed is some way of clearly saying - 'this notification will 
disappear after this timer has counted down'. Could you have an image of 
a pop-up (or a speech bubble?) superimposed over the timer, or something?

I think it's important to avoid the assumption that people will actively 
try and understand something that isn't immediately obvious. I suspect 
that many users of Banshee will not work in that way.

> Perhaps
> the majority of the confusion related to this would be resolved by the
> next item you mention, renaming the button from 'Play next item' to
> 'Skip this item'. That would contextually put the animation near a
> reference to "this item" and would then make sense that you have this
> long to make a decision to skip this item.
>
>   
It might. I certainly think it would help. At the same time, countdown 
timer next to 'Skip this item' button could be interpreted as 'time 
until this item is skipped'.
> >  I also wonder whether it would be better to rename the 'Play next item'
> >  button to 'Skip this item'. In the context of a pop-up notification,
> >  'Play next item' isn't particularly supported by relevant information -
> >  it doesn't tell you what the next item is. In comparison, it would be
> >  clear what 'Skip this item' refers to, since the details of 'this item'
> >  will be displayed in the pop-up itself.
> >     
>
> I can see how this makes sense. Doing this might also resolve the
> previous enhancement idea. :-)
>   
I'll maybe submit this as an enhancement bug...
>   
> >  *Window titles*
> >
> >  At the moment, the format of the window title is: '<Title> (<Artist>)'.
> >  For example: 'Rock You (The Roots)'
> >
> >  To me, brackets doesn't say 'this is the artist'. Hence, to me, they
> >  aren't particularly meaningful.
> >
> >  One solution would be to go for the format of: '<Title> by <Artist>'.
> >  For example: 'Rock You by The Roots'. This would have the advantage of
> >  conforming to the format of the current item information in the main
> >  window (which goes: <Title> by <Artist> from <Album>). Continuity is good!
> >     
>
> I like this too. :-)
>   
And this one.
>   
> >  *Browse by current item details*
> >
> >  When an item is playing, its details are displayed at the top of the
> >  window in the format <Title> by <Artist> from <Album>. It would be
> >  really nice if clicking <Title>, <Artist>, or <Album> selected the
> >  corresponding items. They would become links, more or less.
> >
> >  Just to be clear, it could work something like this:
> >
> >  Click on <Title>: the item would be selected and displayed in the item
> >  browser
> >  Click on <Artist>: the artist would be selected and displayed in the
> >  artist browser
> >  Click on <Album>: the album would be selected and displayed in the album
> >  browser
> >     
>
> That sounds like a neat idea, but I'm not sure that many people would
> expect it to work that way. I wouldn't but I would enjoy knowing it
> worked that way when I found out I guess.
>   
Having the text respond in some way when the mouse cursor is over it 
would help, I guess. It would suggest that the text is interactive.
>   
> >  *Display of currently playing item*
> >
> >  It would be really good to have an easy way to navigate to the current
> >  item in the browser (in addition to the one outlined above). Clicking on
> >  the first column in the item browser would be one way to do this.
> >     
>
> How would this be different from what is planned for "Now Playing". As
> I understand it, that space would provide information on the currently
> playing song. Is that what you are looking for?
>   
What am I looking for?! Good question! I guess, what I am looking for is 
to be able to easily see similar items to the one that I am currently 
listening to.

Let me give you a use case:

I am listening to my whole library on shuffle. I hear a song I like, and 
I think, 'hey, I wonder what other songs are in this album?', or 'what 
other songs do I have by this artist?'

Currently, in order to browse to the current album/artist, I have to 
manually search or browse for that album/artist. It would be really nice 
if I could click something, have the current track selected in the 
browser, and then proceed from there. The kind of functionality I am 
looking for is something that is so easy that it the information I am 
looking for is either automatically displayed, or it is just one click away.

Sorry, this message is getting a bit cumbersome...

Allan