Re: [Usability] Sound Juicer 2 mockup comments

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Ross Burton wrote:

> Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 14:29:40 +0000
> From: Ross Burton <ross burtonini com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Sound Juicer 2 mockup comments
>
> Hi,
>
> Before I get bogged down in the details of coding "Sound Juicer 2", I
> thought I'd best run the design past the usability team first.
>
> This is the current mockup of the main interface:
>
> http://www.burtonini.com/computing/screenshots/sj2-mockup-main-2.png
>
> I purposely copied the Totem interface style (button wise) so that the
> two applications are visually similar.

I think both Totem and your mockup have made the mistake of using a row of
buttons instead of a toolbar (gst-player uses a toolbar).

Another mistake I think is not using a File menu, as it is inconsistant
and unlike a Calculator where you aren't manipulating any files each track
does in reality correspond to a file so it doesn't make sense.

Even if you choose to ignore my above advice and not make use of a File
menu I do not think it is wise to use an acronym for a menu name and would
urge you to come up with an alternative (ie "Disk" but there is probably a
better choice.  (I will admit I was unable to get Sound Juicer running in
previous attempts, something was misconfigured in Mandrake and I didn't
look into it in any great detail but if I had been able to run it I'd be
able to provide more contructive feedback on how to reorganise the menus
in a more convential way.)

I would hope that you will add a View menu at some stage.

> At the top there are the disc title and artist labels.

I'd be tempted to put this "Title" information in the Title Bar.

I would have to take a lot more time to think about it but I think it
may be redundant to unclude artist here, when artist is shown for each
track and a compilation album doesn't really have an artist.

> Then there is a listview of the tracks, showing the
> number/name/artist/duration of each. Next there is a location bar

Are the columns sortable?  I only recently noticed that these columns
are not always sortable (in windows they always seemed to be sortable).

If it is not too much trouble I'd like to see the Track and Name columns
split.  The track column would include only the track number and a
seperate column could be used for the selection indicater.  Similarly Name
column could be split into Title and Artist for convenient sorting.

> showing the current position in the song (if playing), and then the
> buttons (Previous / Play / Next / Edit / Copy | Volume).  I was planning
> on having the play button double as a pause button, but I understand the
> HIG advises against this.

The HIG advises against this although Hadess has choosen to ignore it.
Part of the reason for the HIG recommendation is that a button should not
change from one thing to another as it is confusing (for all users, but
blind users in particular) but this can be mitigated to some extent by
showing a label/icon that indicates the button is both Play & Pause.  I
dont like it but it was the compromise Hadess was willing to make.

> Currently SJ displays a dialog when it is copying a CD -- it would be
> possible to replace it in this design with the "copying" icon in the
> list view (see track 4), and the time slider possibly showing in-track
> progress.

perhaps you could backhighlight the track and effectively turn each row
into a progress bar?  (have you seen how the Safari web browser does
something like this with the location bar?)

> Comments?
>
> Ross

Hope that helps.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan