Re-Design MyTV - get involved

[infinityloop]

Re-Design MyTV - get involved



Recently the Team MediaPortal has been talking internaly about the current design of the MyTV Client Plugin of the TV-Server.

Now we would like to ask YOU what you think how it should work, look and feel.

Therefor we have created a new Forum where you can start a thread for your proposal.

Design Targets:

You have absolutely free hand on the design, so you can come up with a radical re-design if you want to.

It might be a good idea to have a look at other TV related devices/applications to get instpired.

Submitting your Concept:

We have created a ::dedicated new Sub-Forum:: to collect all Concepts.
Just go there and start a new thread for your Concept.

Please look at all the screens/sections of MyTV and propose your improved concept.

Pictures say more then 1.000 words.
So please attach your sketches, (hand-)drawings and/or Photoshop-mockups to your forum thread in order to present and describe your idea, about the perfect MyTV UserInterface, as detailed as possible.

We are all waiting anxious for your mindblowing concept designs.

YOU can improve MediaPortal!

If you have Questions, then feel free to post them in this thread

note:
We realy need well thought User-Interface Concepts for the MyTV Section.

Please do not start "Feature Request" threads. Such will be ignored/removed.

[infinityloop]

I think it would be best to answer the follwoing question from here since other user could be interested too.

Originally Posted by THDBASED

I really want to help to redesign myTV but I don't understand what you want us to redesign. Skin related, or the way the buttons and object are placed in myTV.

Hello!

virtualy "everything".

i.e. look at sagetv, vistaMCE, TVCentral, .... and settopboxes.
then think about what you like about their User Interfaces and what you miss.

based on that you can start to think about it and sketch what you would like to "see" when you enter MyTV in MediaPortal and how it should "act".

a complete OSD style Userinterface, a central "common-rose" button set, ect., ect., ect.

you can show us what you would like to have it look like, and what should happen when you press one of the buttons.

Design the Ultimate MyTV UserInterface

The only limit is your imagination.

[vvulture]

Hey there..

No offense intended here, but isn't it more important to get a Stable release of MP and TV Server before doing this ??

I don't see how this is something that needs to be addressed at this point.

cheers

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by vvulture

Hey there..

No offense intended here, but isn't it more important to get a Stable release of MP and TV Server before doing this ??

I don't see how this is something that needs to be addressed at this point.

Well..... the plan is this:

We are (still) working NOW on stability
while the community is creating usability improvement concepts

as soon as we have finished our work and release the next stable versions, we will start with the usability improvements based on the concepts from the community.

who else could tell us how something works best if not the users?

[vvulture]

Originally Posted by infinityloop

Well..... the plan is this:

We are (still) working NOW on stability
while the community is creating usability improvement concepts

as soon as we have finished our work and release the next stable versions, we will start with the usability improvements based on the concepts from the community.

who else could tell us how something works best if not the users?

Ok fair enough.. It's just that we all know how much work you guys have on your hands, and it would be crazy for you to take on even more work..
:-)

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by vvulture

It's just that we all know how much work you guys have on your hands, and it would be crazy for you to take on even more work..

thats reason 2 why we asked the community for User Interface Concepts

reason 1 is that the users know best how they want it to work,look and feel like.


so we hope that during the next weeks we will see some new fresh concept designs in this forum.
many good ideas have allready been posted in the ideas collection thread.

hopefully some users will take and integrate the best of them into a design concept

[mbuzina]

Hi infinity,

Sorry not to add a proposal, but I think this is not the right way to get real user-friendly feedback. You know who will be answering such a post, all of us geeky nerdy setting tweakers, everybody who runs a modified copy of MP just to have the "XYZ"-Button somewhere they like.

To get the right answer for this, you have to ask the people that do NOT answer this request...

So, everybody who posts here: Go and ask your Wife, Kids, Neighbours (that do not enjoy the past-time called MP ;-) ) and anybody you know who is not so nerdy (difficult, I know).

BTW: The looks (font sizes, colors, pics, positions etc) would have to be skinnable in any future, so try thinking along general concepts would be my suggestion.

[kiesow]

And I guess what most wifes and kids will say is: keep it simple and less is more.
No screens with hundreds of nerdy options.
Hide every option which is not necessary directly and just show what is need.
So for example only show four options on every screen (accessable via the four colored buttons on the remote) and if somebody presses the I(nfo)-button that other, more advanced options become visible and are accessable via the direction-buttons.

[infinityloop]

again.

we could also have worked on a new concept teaminternaly.but i thought it would be good to involve the community.

the only productive way to contribute is to "show" us how YOU want the userinterface to look, feel and handle.

"keep it simple" doesnt help a bit. because something which is uber-simple for me, might be totaly confusing for someone else.
so grab your drawing block, MS paint, photshop..... or whatever, and start thinking about it.

[Mars Warrior]

Originally Posted by infinityloop

again.
the only productive way to contribute is to "show" us how YOU want the userinterface to look, feel and handle.

"keep it simple" doesnt help a bit. because something which is uber-simple for me, might be totaly confusing for someone else.
so grab your drawing block, MS paint, photshop..... or whatever, and start thinking about it.

Right!
However I do hope that ppl also explain the WHY or the GOAL of a certain idea . A very nice screenshot doesn't tell me the reason which might be very important, as others might understand what you want and could even improve the idea

On the other hand: not all improvements can be caught in a screenshot!

Things I came across in the past while I was advertising MP to young and old (even very old) ppl where things like:
- Too slow / no immediate respons when zapping fast forward/backward
- OSD much too intrusive, it blocks watching TV
- Absolutely not intuitive (too many different buttons, used buttons not logical)
- EPG a mess
- MP can't handle many channels user friendly
- Fonts too small for elderly: why can't there be a zoom button?
- MMI / use of remote invented by nerds ( )
- Why did you nerds not use a Philips LCD TV (OSD channel switching etc.) as an example? Too complicated for you guys I suppose? (same person as previous comment...)
- If you nerds think as fast as this thing switches channels, I'm afraid that making this thing user friendly will take ages... (NO comment...)

Note:
I haven't checked these things recently, so it might be that some of these things are not relevant anymore, and that new ones have popped up...