A whole bunch of (mostly minor) usability suggestions
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 10:35 am
Hi Jez,
I evidently have way too much time on my hands..... I've put together a list of suggestions for making Muso IMHO a little more usable/friendly [that's not to suggest it isn't already btw].
Most of these are pretty small ideas, some of which should just need some minor changes to the HTML - others not so. Apologise if some of these have already been suggested.
1: On 'Artist Page' - make the whole album title click-able to toggle expanding/contracting the track list - rather than just the small fiddly icon.
[Done in 2.5.08]
2: When one album is expanded have the others collapse (optional).
3: Have text buttons for expand/contract all albums not just the icons.
[Done in 2.5.08]
4: Have Track Groups and/or Disks expandable / contractable - this could make browsing big box sets a lot more comfortable.
Like the idea but clicking on a track group header has another meaning at present, to enqueue the group. Will give some thought though.
4: Make the words "Play Now" click-able to trigger playing as well as it's icon - likewise "Enqueue".
[Done in 2.5.08]
5: Album track numbers - display track numbers on 'Now Playing' and in 'Artist - Tracks' view. Also have track info (codec, kbs, etc) of playing track on NP screen.
[For Now Playing page both these are in 2.5.09 - not so sure of it's value of adding track number to Artist Tracks view though]
6-: Make the Hierarchy menus font size configurable/theme-able - sounds like you've already go this on the your list.
This is now done in 2.5.11
7: 'Buy on Amazon' link should open in (default) external browser not in Muso. I only ever use Firefox for buying stuff.
[in 2.5.09]
8: Album artwork page - right click menu on the images that offers to open the file externally (in default image viewer / editor). Good for making quick changes to the images (ie cropping) before dropping them back in Muso.
[in 2.5.09]
9: Have a different theme for each mode. In other words switching mode (classical / mixed /non-classical} also changes theme to the last chosen them when using that mode.
[in 2.5.10]
10: Cloud views, particularly composer, need the alphabetic sort to be by surname. I often can't remember composers Christian names!
[See discussion below: use sortkeys]
11: Order albums in main browser view by artist>year.
[see comment below]
12 A sort function to the 'By-Track' view to allow sorting by date, rating, album, duration, track-name, etc. Maybe also, a filter function to filter by tag, album, date, rating, etc.
13: Add some optional buttons (maybe sitting in the main header section) that can be user configured to send CLI command to LMS (or other such). I'd personally like a button that clears the current playlist - other uses could be to start favorites. The button label could be configurable alongside the actual command sent.
Yes quite like this idea, sometimes I wish I could toggle random mode through Muso, but then again I'd want the button to reflect what the current setting is, which would be difficult to handle generically.
Sorry for the long list - I could break this down to individual posts if you prefer.
I evidently have way too much time on my hands..... I've put together a list of suggestions for making Muso IMHO a little more usable/friendly [that's not to suggest it isn't already btw].
Most of these are pretty small ideas, some of which should just need some minor changes to the HTML - others not so. Apologise if some of these have already been suggested.
1: On 'Artist Page' - make the whole album title click-able to toggle expanding/contracting the track list - rather than just the small fiddly icon.
[Done in 2.5.08]
2: When one album is expanded have the others collapse (optional).
3: Have text buttons for expand/contract all albums not just the icons.
[Done in 2.5.08]
4: Have Track Groups and/or Disks expandable / contractable - this could make browsing big box sets a lot more comfortable.
Like the idea but clicking on a track group header has another meaning at present, to enqueue the group. Will give some thought though.
4: Make the words "Play Now" click-able to trigger playing as well as it's icon - likewise "Enqueue".
[Done in 2.5.08]
5: Album track numbers - display track numbers on 'Now Playing' and in 'Artist - Tracks' view. Also have track info (codec, kbs, etc) of playing track on NP screen.
[For Now Playing page both these are in 2.5.09 - not so sure of it's value of adding track number to Artist Tracks view though]
6-: Make the Hierarchy menus font size configurable/theme-able - sounds like you've already go this on the your list.
This is now done in 2.5.11
7: 'Buy on Amazon' link should open in (default) external browser not in Muso. I only ever use Firefox for buying stuff.
[in 2.5.09]
8: Album artwork page - right click menu on the images that offers to open the file externally (in default image viewer / editor). Good for making quick changes to the images (ie cropping) before dropping them back in Muso.
[in 2.5.09]
9: Have a different theme for each mode. In other words switching mode (classical / mixed /non-classical} also changes theme to the last chosen them when using that mode.
[in 2.5.10]
10: Cloud views, particularly composer, need the alphabetic sort to be by surname. I often can't remember composers Christian names!
[See discussion below: use sortkeys]
11: Order albums in main browser view by artist>year.
[see comment below]
12 A sort function to the 'By-Track' view to allow sorting by date, rating, album, duration, track-name, etc. Maybe also, a filter function to filter by tag, album, date, rating, etc.
13: Add some optional buttons (maybe sitting in the main header section) that can be user configured to send CLI command to LMS (or other such). I'd personally like a button that clears the current playlist - other uses could be to start favorites. The button label could be configurable alongside the actual command sent.
Yes quite like this idea, sometimes I wish I could toggle random mode through Muso, but then again I'd want the button to reflect what the current setting is, which would be difficult to handle generically.
Sorry for the long list - I could break this down to individual posts if you prefer.