Hi,
Have just had my first 24 hours with MediaPortal in the front room, using it in anger with a remote control.
Before I submit my concerns and feedback, let me say it is excellent to see this My Music revisited. Instead of moving on to sexy new features, it is an excellent idea to revisit the bread-and-butter features of a media centric-PC. I am writing this following using My Music and other features, as I haven't yet got a full Media Portal hardware compliment.
My experience has been the classic 11-foot experience, using a TV and Remote from the couch. Admittedly, it ain't a great remote, but it will do the job until I can get a MCE keyboard/remote doobrie. I also bring to my experience some degree of usability knowledge.
My first concern is a really frustrating [My Music] bug where you browse into a "folder" and the icons become unresponsive. I have seen it reported elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. But it is annoying to have to change the view mode EVERY time you browse through a folder to select something. I guess this will be fixed as it looks like its going to be a rewrite rather than a revisit!
I'm not going to ask for any new features, it seems we have already got enough. My only concern is these new features will come at the cost of usability. I take my lead from TiVo, which if you can get access to one the developers would do worse than learning from.
When I am 11-foot away from the screen, I don't want to remember what keys to press on the keyboard or the remote. There should be distinct buttons: Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, etc. This is for your bread and button stuff. Anything else, make it really simple. Both in terms of easy to use (which is mostly is - but I am still struggling to figure out some bits) but also thinking very carefully about the user experience. For instance, some screens (I'm talking of the whole of MP, here) accept up/down to navigate - others don't. In the current My Music, you have two lists. In the left list, you should be able to press Right to move to the track list on the right. I have to resort to using the remote for mouse work or have to get up, instead of using the configured buttons up/down/left/right.
This is how TiVo works:
Left - Go back
Right - Go Forward/Expand options/Select
Up - Up an item in a list
Down - Down an item in a list
Select - Execute (with no requirement for further config)
Page up/dn - ... I think you get the idea.
Overall, the UI is attarctive, well thought out and functional. I do like the way the more complex configuration is managed outside of the main GUI. But I think if the controls were consistently applied, it would be a more pleasurable experience.
I don't mind hotkeys, which look to be mapped to arbitrary keys on a keyboard, as these can be mapped to remote functions - but try and make them logical for the buttons on a remote. eg. instead of having a hotkey to invoke a particularly clever feature, break it down and use a more basic description or metaphor so it can be applied to any remote control.
I am absolutely in support of this, but I would hope that you could take your usability lead from people who have already spent millions of dollars working it out for you!
I'd be interested in your thoughts....
Have just had my first 24 hours with MediaPortal in the front room, using it in anger with a remote control.
Before I submit my concerns and feedback, let me say it is excellent to see this My Music revisited. Instead of moving on to sexy new features, it is an excellent idea to revisit the bread-and-butter features of a media centric-PC. I am writing this following using My Music and other features, as I haven't yet got a full Media Portal hardware compliment.
My experience has been the classic 11-foot experience, using a TV and Remote from the couch. Admittedly, it ain't a great remote, but it will do the job until I can get a MCE keyboard/remote doobrie. I also bring to my experience some degree of usability knowledge.
My first concern is a really frustrating [My Music] bug where you browse into a "folder" and the icons become unresponsive. I have seen it reported elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. But it is annoying to have to change the view mode EVERY time you browse through a folder to select something. I guess this will be fixed as it looks like its going to be a rewrite rather than a revisit!
I'm not going to ask for any new features, it seems we have already got enough. My only concern is these new features will come at the cost of usability. I take my lead from TiVo, which if you can get access to one the developers would do worse than learning from.
When I am 11-foot away from the screen, I don't want to remember what keys to press on the keyboard or the remote. There should be distinct buttons: Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, etc. This is for your bread and button stuff. Anything else, make it really simple. Both in terms of easy to use (which is mostly is - but I am still struggling to figure out some bits) but also thinking very carefully about the user experience. For instance, some screens (I'm talking of the whole of MP, here) accept up/down to navigate - others don't. In the current My Music, you have two lists. In the left list, you should be able to press Right to move to the track list on the right. I have to resort to using the remote for mouse work or have to get up, instead of using the configured buttons up/down/left/right.
This is how TiVo works:
Left - Go back
Right - Go Forward/Expand options/Select
Up - Up an item in a list
Down - Down an item in a list
Select - Execute (with no requirement for further config)
Page up/dn - ... I think you get the idea.
Overall, the UI is attarctive, well thought out and functional. I do like the way the more complex configuration is managed outside of the main GUI. But I think if the controls were consistently applied, it would be a more pleasurable experience.
I don't mind hotkeys, which look to be mapped to arbitrary keys on a keyboard, as these can be mapped to remote functions - but try and make them logical for the buttons on a remote. eg. instead of having a hotkey to invoke a particularly clever feature, break it down and use a more basic description or metaphor so it can be applied to any remote control.
I am absolutely in support of this, but I would hope that you could take your usability lead from people who have already spent millions of dollars working it out for you!
I'd be interested in your thoughts....