Possible Skin Navigation (1 Viewer)

[loxton]

This thread is not a skin design and I don’t have the skills to implement them, it is just a dump of my ideas and hope it will spark some development in the current MePo 2 competition. Although I find it easy to navigate around MePo 1 whenever I pass the remote to my girlfriend or friends I have to explain how to navigate as all the different screens are different.

I have tried to create a layout which is consistent in every screen, with the buttons on the remove doing the same thing every time. Any playing media will always be visible and menus will appear over it, or in the case of music a visualisation.

Colour selection
To increase speed few images will be used, instead transparent/opaque gradients will be used. The default colour scheme will be user selectable in config. However how it looks should be left to some of the many talented people on here.

Controls
The skin will be navigated by nine simple buttons:
• Up, Down, Left and Right – will move around the screen as expected.
• Back – this will go back to the previous screen.
• Menu – will display a sub menu for the highlighted item.
• Home – bring up the home screen.
• Info – will display more info for the highlighted item.
• OK – selects item.
The standard play, fast forward, rewind etc will still be used and will control any playing media.

Home Screen
This will show when the program is started or when the Home button is clicked. This could be horizontal or vertical and consist of submenus. When the home button is pressed this home screen will appear over the current window or playing media, with the previous window/media visible under with a gradient and transparent colour. Clicking the back button will get rid of the menu showing what is hidden behind. The item highlighted will depend on what section the user is in. This means that if the user is in the TV section and wants the guide they press the home button which brings up the home screen with the TV item highlighted and they can quickly move through the submenu and select guide.

When moving through the menu the sub menu will show when the item is highlighted to make it obvious to the user that that there are other items available. The sub menu will generate depending on the plugins installed or be user customisable. Plugin developers will select a category that their plugin relates to so the auto generating menu is possible.

Clicking up on a vertical menu or left on a horizontal (assuming the submenu is on the right) will go to the currently playing media or now playing screen.

Clicking Menu on the Home screen shows the hidden menu with power options (power off, restart etc), close, settings.

I personally feel a vertical menu works best as the home screen. You go left and right to select the different category’s and up and down to selected the sub category’s, or up past the main vertical bar to go to currently playing media or now playing.

TV
If TV is selected (not one of the sub menu items) then full screen TV will start on the last channel being viewed, similar to turning on a standard TV. Other sections related to TV are accessible by pressing the Home button as described in the home screen section.

Music
Selecting music would go to the default music view.
The sub menu of the home screen would show artist, album etc.

Photo/Pictures
Selecting photos would go to the default photo view.
The submenu in the home screen would show the category’s of pictures that the user had setup. Eg Holiday, Family, Friends etc.

Movies
Selecting movies would go to the default movies view.
The submenu would show genre, actor etc

OSD
The OSD will show in full screen media when the user presses down. The OSD will be simple showing a logo, minimal information on what is playing etc.

Pressing info will show detailed info on what is currently playing.

Option, such as audio language will be accessed from a menu which appears when the Menu button is pressed.

Example menu layout

Home
- TV
o Guide
o Recorded
o Scheduled
o Conflicts
o Online (e.g. to iplayer in the UK)
o etc
- Movies
o Latest Added
o Genre
o Actor
o etc
- Music
o Latest Added
o Artist
o Album
o Genre
o etc
- Videos
o Latest Added
o Family
o Youtube
o etc
- Photos
o Latest Added
o Family
o Holiday
o etc



There will be areas that require more thought but I would be curious what everyone thinks.
Loxton

 

[Albert]

AW: Possible Skin Navigation

Hi loxon,
thank you very much for your thoughts.

This thread is not a skin design and I don’t have the skills to implement them, it is just a dump of my ideas and hope it will spark some development in the current MePo 2 competition. Although I find it easy to navigate around MePo 1 whenever I pass the remote to my girlfriend or friends I have to explain how to navigate as all the different screens are different.

Yes, that is a big point which I have in focus: The new UI should be as consistent as possible.

Colour selection
To increase speed few images will be used, instead transparent/opaque gradients will be used. The default colour scheme will be user selectable in config. However how it looks should be left to some of the many talented people on here.

In MP2, we have a performant graphics engine which calculates and displays gradients very fast. So I think MP2 won't contain so many pictures as MP1. In MP1, every button basically had to be a picture (as far as I know, I never skinned MP1...). In the current state of MP2, there are only very few pictures, basically only in the Weather plugin to show the current weather situation, and in some other places. But things like UI controls (buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, menus, ...) are all drawn by the SkinEngine as a kind of vector graphics.

Controls
The skin will be navigated by nine simple buttons:
• Up, Down, Left and Right – will move around the screen as expected.
• Back – this will go back to the previous screen.
• Menu – will display a sub menu for the highlighted item.
• Home – bring up the home screen.
• Info – will display more info for the highlighted item.
• OK – selects item.
The standard play, fast forward, rewind etc will still be used and will control any playing media.

That's already implemented more or less. Now the question is: Which kind of information should be shown in the Info and Menu menus? If the default skin (or some skin from this contest) will follow your concept, we'll need a more detailed categorization of information to be shown at the different places. Which items show up in the main menu (main, vertical line) and which ones are displayed as sub menu (horizontal lines)?

Home Screen
This will show when the program is started or when the Home button is clicked. This could be horizontal or vertical and consist of submenus. When the home button is pressed this home screen will appear over the current window or playing media, with the previous window/media visible under with a gradient and transparent colour. Clicking the back button will get rid of the menu showing what is hidden behind. The item highlighted will depend on what section the user is in. This means that if the user is in the TV section and wants the guide they press the home button which brings up the home screen with the TV item highlighted and they can quickly move through the submenu and select guide.

That is a very good idea. Basically, you decouple the complete menu structure from the actual content screens. (In fact this is as Windows MediaCenter does it, isn't it? I have never seen it in that way) Currently, we mix up menu structure and content screens. That means we always have a menu and a content region visible. Sometimes, the content region is empty and sometimes, there are no menu items.

I think that is a very good point. I have to think about it.

Clicking up on a vertical menu or left on a horizontal (assuming the submenu is on the right) will go to the currently playing media or now playing screen.

I don't understand that. Clicking the arrow keys on a menu should switch to the next menu item in that direction, shouldn't it?


Cheers,
Albert

 

[loxton]

I have added two example pictures, the first showing the menu with the movie sections highlighted and the corresponding submenu with Genre selected. Moving left or right, regardless of what is selected in the sub menu would go to Series or TV.

Originally Posted by loxton
Clicking up on a vertical menu or left on a horizontal (assuming the submenu is on the right) will go to the currently playing media or now playing screen.

I don't understand that. Clicking the arrow keys on a menu should switch to the next menu item in that direction, shouldn't it?

I didn’t explain that very well. In the second picture (which would be shown after clicking the Home button in the Movie section) if the user clicked Up they would go back to full screen media that was playing (if any). Pressing down would highlight items in the sub menu. To go back to full screen media the user would click up the sub menu until the main menu was highlighted, then up one more.

In hindsight that isn’t very logical, pressing up should, if anything, reveal the previous window. In this case the movie section. That would mean another button would be required to show media/now playing full screen. I was trying to avoid requiring another button. Any suggestions from anyone?

Loxton

 

[redeye19987]

Very interesting thread! I think this will indeed help people start to "think outside the box" which is why Albert is running the competition.

Loxton, I don't think you need the UP button scenario as you have already indicated that the BACK button will do this. The Wife/Girlfriend will be using the back button to get back to what they were watching because, as you have explained, that makes the most sense.

 

[GeoffC]

Music
Selecting music would go to the default music view.
The sub menu of the home screen would show artist, album etc.

Photo/Pictures
Selecting photos would go to the default photo view.
The submenu in the home screen would show the category’s of pictures that the user had setup. Eg Holiday, Family, Friends etc.

Movies
Selecting movies would go to the default movies view.
The submenu would show genre, actor etc

I think it would be great if the 'default views' were organized better. Let me try and explain, most of my movies photos and music is arranged in multilevel folders. So currently it is a chore to navigate from one sub folder to a different folder and sub folder. What would be great would be something like a tree view at the side allowing rapid movement through folders and sub folders.

 

[sk280]

Hello All, Like the OP I am no skin designer and do not have skills. However Ive come upon an idea that am hoping would inspire someone like the developers of Maya skin (my favorite MP skin thus far) or Backdrop or StreamedMP.

The idea of the skin is coverflow. All elements including the menu items in classic home (or basic home) implement coverflow with integrated fan-art. Coverflow is consistent in all areas of Mediaportal (including plugins, settings, TV, Music etc.) Since Moving pictures, TV Series and Videos already have coverflow its a matter of impelmenting them for the rest esp. the home screen. Of course it also means the menu navigation would be horizontal with integrated fan-art.

If anybody thinks its a good idea and decide to launch development, I'm happy to help any way I can. I'm a programmer myself (C#, C++) although I have no experience with development of Media portal.

Finally, OP apologies for including this in your thread instead of starting another thread, since Iam in a similar position as you with an idea.

I look forward to your replies.