Re: [Usability] Sound Juicer 2 mockup comments

[Martyn Russell <mr gnome org>]

On Tue, 2005-01-04 at 14:29 +0000, Ross Burton wrote:
> 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

Nice ;)

Column wise, I would have done things a little differently, as below
(apologies if the ascii art goes horribly wrong):

Extract | Track | Title     | Duration
   x        1     Something   3:00
            2     Something   4:00
   x       #3     Something   5:00

* In the first column I would have the check button on its own as you
did in the original SJ.  
* In the second column I would have track and the image (#) that you
would use to show you are playing that track or extracting that track?
* In the third column an editable title as in the original SJ.
* In the forth column the duration as in the original SJ.

The artist is usually always the same and I think there needs to be a
way to edit the artist if required but generally not - perhaps a check
button on a menu to show an extra editable column or something similar?

> I purposely copied the Totem interface style (button wise) so that the
> two applications are visually similar.

This is all good, although the volume control IMO would be better like
the applet and the way Rhythmbox do it (a button which when clicks drops
down a vertical slider).  This would save space and would be more
consistent across the Gnome desktop then.

> At the top there are the disc title and artist labels.  Then there is a
> listview of the tracks, showing the number/name/artist/duration of each.
> Next there is a location bar 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.

Not sure what I feel is the best on this one, sometimes I want a stop
button, but I can live without it.  If you have the space, I would
probably include it because people will expect it.

> 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.

Yea, exactly what I have been thinking since the original SJ.  The
extract column could be used so that when you start ripping, the check
buttons change into progress bars.

> I'll obviously need a set of decent icons to replace the stock "convert"
> icon at some point, which isn't suitable for SJ.

If you go with the progress bar cell renderer idea then you wouldn't
need the icon to show which track is being extracted :)

Also as far as the wording is concerned, "Extract" is perfect IMO.  The
next best thing I could come up with was "Import" (for if you had a
music collection).

-- 
Regards,
Martyn