Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] UI suggestion for 2 (3) bugs with mock up

["Martin Jeppesen" <d2xdt2 gmail com>]

> I can see your point when it comes to the arrangement of the previous
> and next buttons, but I have two criticisms:
>
> 1) The button bar doesn't look right: the most important control buttons
> have been moved to an area with lower visual priority, where people are
> less likely to be able to find them easily. They could get "lost"
> amongst all the library UI.

That could of course be a concern.

On the positive side, the buttons are not required for the operation
of Rhythmbox. Don't get me wrong; I think they should be there =) But
the functionality is available from the browser. The only function
that can't be achieved is the Stop function.

The control buttons of e.g. Firefox are very important, as you can't
operate the application without them, so they most be very visually
easy to find. But does that hold for music players as well?

> 2) Most people expect "previous" and "next" buttons on audio equipment
> to be horizontally, not vertically, aligned. Although strictly speaking
> it makes sense that they relate to "up" and "down", I would argue that
> it is more likely to confuse people, as it violates the precedent set by
> almost every other audio device and application in existence.

On dedicated HI-FI like tape recorders and CD's I think it makes
sense, that the arrows are horizontally, as the medium goes from left
to right or rotates.

I haven't got a portable music player myself, but don't you click
up/down in most of them to change songs?

> As I understand it, the bugs you mentioned relate to the _behaviour_ of
> the UI rather than the layout, which perhaps does need some attention.

I would clearly prefer, if the functionality of the back button wasn't
changed, so this proposal is more or less if the functionality have to
be changed.