So basically, you just turn the "homescreen" into an overlay that can slide in on top in any view.
Right?
Community Design (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter wizard123
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So basically, you just turn the "homescreen" into an overlay that can slide in on top in any view.
Right?
- January 24, 2012
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- #162
That menu is possible, i was implementing it on the community design skin a while back but on some screens navigation is not possible due to hard coded navigation.
The idea of info screen for entry point is old and very cluttered plus most users would not even want all that info, mostly what home screens are now with latest media.
The idea of info screen for entry point is old and very cluttered plus most users would not even want all that info, mostly what home screens are now with latest media.
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- #164
It's a nice idea, but does not go far enough for my taste to be called "modern/fresh/new" - as it is still very similar to what we have got for ages now - just with a little twist in the way how it is presented.
That's why this should be configurable what is shown there or not. If the user don't want this Info screen (s)he just chooses another screen as entry point and probably disables info screen completely. I see this info screen similar to start pages of some web services where you have newsfeeds, latest blog entries, weather, date/time,...
Skin is about how to present something. We can't use touch gesture as user did not have touch screen TV, we have limited # of buttons on remote but we need a way to navigate between plugins. Maybe we can add some kind of voice navigation (like StarTrek) but that's not implemented nicely at all. The touch screen tables and the Video Screen walls (known from some TV shows) are also not available to normal user so you need a kind of navigation menu. This can be a circle, a spider web or a bar like on this mockup or whatever you like. But some kind of menu is needed, I'm sure.
- January 24, 2012
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- #167
Too much configuration can also kill a product and the way its designed to look, configurable is a term that gets thrown in without too much thought into design. Yes it's great having configurable menus etc but not at the cost of the design and feel.
Hi.
A matter of balance between preconfigured behaviour and configurability... The product has to be usable right from the start. E.g. the user shouldn't be forced to do a channel scan before he can use TV. We ask for the country and see what TV tuners are available in the system. Based on this we can install predefined channel settings. I live in Germany and I have DVB-S2 tuners so I get Astra 19.2°E as preconfigured TV sources...
But if the user wants to dig deeper (s)he has to be able to do so. That's why I'm asking for configuration on every part of a HTPC.... And that's the most weak part (aside of some good looking skins) on MP2 atm. I can not configure most of the parts I want to in an easy way... I can do most of the stuff I need, but therefore I have to fiddle around with XML files and/or manipulate the DB directly. Not a common task for average users.
A matter of balance between preconfigured behaviour and configurability... The product has to be usable right from the start. E.g. the user shouldn't be forced to do a channel scan before he can use TV. We ask for the country and see what TV tuners are available in the system. Based on this we can install predefined channel settings. I live in Germany and I have DVB-S2 tuners so I get Astra 19.2°E as preconfigured TV sources...
But if the user wants to dig deeper (s)he has to be able to do so. That's why I'm asking for configuration on every part of a HTPC.... And that's the most weak part (aside of some good looking skins) on MP2 atm. I can not configure most of the parts I want to in an easy way... I can do most of the stuff I need, but therefore I have to fiddle around with XML files and/or manipulate the DB directly. Not a common task for average users.
- January 24, 2012
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- #169
That is not really related to modern gui design though, they are options the core product itself needs to offer.
OFC. but if you don't think about configurability creating the design you will never reach a point the user is satisfied completely. Every user has completely different thoughts how "his" MediaCenter should look like. So we need to provide a platform where the user can come as close as possible to his personal taste. I'm a "fanart guy" I like to have as much pictures in background as possible, others want the software to look clean and easy. You never can add this to a single piece of code as long as it isn't highly configurable..
I don't think of this necessarily as part of MP1, more in a general point of view. Imho MP1 is dead and buried if it comes to "modern" features. As long as the skin engine is as it is now, as long as the code base is as it is now I think there is not much space for new features regarding design and usability. It's amazing how much talented people can get out of this "old lady", but there are borders no one can cross at all, I fear...
I don't think of this necessarily as part of MP1, more in a general point of view. Imho MP1 is dead and buried if it comes to "modern" features. As long as the skin engine is as it is now, as long as the code base is as it is now I think there is not much space for new features regarding design and usability. It's amazing how much talented people can get out of this "old lady", but there are borders no one can cross at all, I fear...