Eric Jorgensen wrote: > On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:28:48 +0200 > Dirk Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> Eric Jorgensen wrote: >> >>> I've only been using open source software for 15 years, but a common >>> thread I've seen in user interface design is that it generally looks >>> like it was conceived of by a programmer, and thus typically meets >>> the barest of strict requirements by a hair or less, and has >>> workflow characteristics that too closely resemble procedural >>> programming. >>> >> Yes, that is true. The problem with that is that it is not easy to >> find designer for open source projects. We are all coder. I asked on >> the list several times for designer but got not much response. I can >> code it, tell me about the look and feel ... and for Freevo: we need >> more developers. >> > > The main UI features of Freevo as it stands now are not bad at all, and > where static content is concerned, far better than myth. > > I wish i could offer design assistance but, well, that's not where i > have experience. I'm in software QA - bringing attention to warts is > what i do. > There's a new release due out soon some some bug testing of rel-1 svn would be great if can. > Tivo put a huge amount of money and effort into their UI design. > Insiders say that they had their 'trick play' live pause engine working > flawlessly for four years before they let anyone outside the company > see the user interface without first signing a nondisclosure agreement, > because they knew that the Wife Acceptance Factor had to be extremely > high. > > And they nailed it. There's a reason why Tivo has such loyal customers, > and it's not the cute animated logo/mascot. > > Even my mother, who is in her sixties, took to the Tivo "MyWorld" UI > immediately. These days she has a cable-company-provided PVR, and says > it's nowhere near as good as her old tivo. I need to figure out if the > cable-card-capable tivos have an interface for the on-demand video her > cable co offers so maybe she can stop renting their hackish attempt at > a PVR. > I've no experience with a tivo but I'm sure you're right and that it does have a very refined interface. Hopefully freevo will match it some day :) > One of the things i personally really appreciate about my tivo is it's > ability to let me quickly browse through a huge amount of guide data so > i can find out exactly what i wanted to know without much hassle. > With the button bar plugin I find navigation the tv guide in freevo quite good. Without it it's a pain. > I can, for example, with half a dozen key presses, learn what movies > are starting over the next few hours. It's handy. > Browse by genre in freevo should do that. > If I turn on the tv and find that it's an hour into something that > looks interesting, it's just a few key presses to determine when it'll > be on next, and a couple more to schedule a recording. > In freevo hit 'd' then choose search for more instances, then choose which one you want to record. > I wouldn't say it's intuitive - because until computers can > read minds, no software is intuitive - but it appeals to human > intuition in the sense that it adheres to it's own design standards > consistently, and rarely if ever violates what some in the software QA > business refer to as the Law of Least Astonishment. > Maybe a drawback from having multiple plugins and different authors all working in their own style. Because of familiarity maybe what's needed is someone new to freevo with a good knowledge of similar systems to go through the whole interface and point out any inconsistencies. Even better if they can contribute some patches but if not but in a feature or bug tracker entry and at least then it's noted. > Which is, of course, that at all times, in any circumstances, no matter > how dire, the software should cause the user the least amount of > astonishment possible. Sounds good. As I mentioned I'm sure that the tivo has a much more intuitive way of doing all these, I just wanted to point out that the functionality exists in freevo. Maybe some of these plugins should be activated by default or maybe the documentation should be better but that's another debate :)
John ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
