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Subject: Do you like the current UI?
From: Gvillo, Mike (MXG_at_dolby.com)
Date: 2003-09-09

Long time lurker, first time poster...

First off, Rockbox developers are great people, thank you so much!
Archos is getting some very very good product made for them for free,
shame on them for not kicking down to the developers.

***I would not bought another Archos player had it not been for
Rockbox.*** (Ahem, Archos, you listening?)

So I just got back from a week long desert camping trip/music/art
festival with 30 some odd people. I took my FM recorder, a mixer, some
PAs and 35 pages of my mp3s printed out to provide music for our camp.
Never before was it more clear to me that the current user interface is
FAR from user friendly. I had hoped that people would feel free to pick
songs just like a jukebox in a bar, there's no way that would happen
with the current UI. It's impossible for a 1st time user to just pick
up the player and find/play/queue a song or album. Even for me, a
patient long time Rockbox user, I would screw up while trying to make
long playlists, sooner or later I'd play a song instead of queuing it.
The On-play button combination isn't such a hot idea, eventually my
finger loses pressure on the On button and I end up playing a song,
interrupting what's playing (bad DJ!), losing the inserted play list and
I would have to start all over again. (It would also be great to view
the dynamic playlist.)

Non-contributors can't really complain, Rockbox redefines Archos'
products, the developers are doing an incredible job, it's a beautiful
thing, but does anyone really think the current UI is any good?

Suggestions: (what good is a 'bug complaint' without a posed solution?)
On-play = button lock out, only prevents the music from being
interrupted but you can still navigate the menus and change the volume.

Menu = toggle from the WPS to the options list currently available under

F1, F2, F3 = screens for queuing and other options but keep it all very
high level stuff.

If you can set an Archos in front of someone who's never seen an mp3
player and they can use the basic features (play, navigate, queue, find
the setting menu), then the UI is good.

The current system of using up/down/left/right under the F1-3 menus is a
good idea, I like that. The plethora of options are nice, there's a lot
going for Rockbox, but the UI needs help. Someone needs to take a long
step back and do a reality check on its design, it's hard to see the
forest through the trees when you're so involved in the details of the
project. Thanks for reading this far in my rant ;)

Rock on...


Page was last modified "Jan 10 2012" The Rockbox Crew