[vlc] proposal for a new macosx intf (again !!!!)

[Derk-Jan Hartman]

Several ppl have stated there disliking against the current interface.
1. Not 'apple' enough
2. the play button is too large
3. too big

personally i hate it that i cannot resize the playlist. I like to have  
a lot of items in my playlist (series or music video's for instance).  
In that case the current playlist is just too small.
In the current design there is one big reason for this. We have a small  
controller and drawers always need to be smaller then the window they  
are attached to. If not this gives really weird effects when you  
hide/show the drawer (the drawer is actually temp. visible before it is  
shown because it is too big to fit behind your window)

I have personally always enjoyed the iTunes intf.
http://sidekick.student.utwente.nl/videolan/itunes.jpg

My current design is still in Interface Builder, so think all the cool  
pictures from iTunes over the buttons etc.
This is my suggestion.
http://sidekick.student.utwente.nl/videolan/newinterface.jpg

It consists of two views. one small view with just controller options  
and one large view with a visible playlist.
both views will use the 'metal' look like iTunes. They will use similar  
buttons.
To stay a bit 'special' i think we should keep the current blue/gray  
style of our current button-icons instead of the black from iTunes or  
QT Player. i like the blue/gray. ;)

I'll take the large view in my explanation, the small view is similar.
The three round buttons are <<,  play and >>
<<    - one click is previous playlistitem (previous chapter in a DVD)
          - keeping pressed is rewind (implemented trough seek).
play - a play/pause toggle. i choose against a seperate stop buttong QT  
player doesn't need it either. why would we.
 >>    - one click is next playlistitem (next chapter in a DVD)
          - keeping pressed is fastforward (implemented trough seek).

The small horizontal slider is the volumeslider with small speaker  
icons to both sides (just as it is now).
I don't see any real need for any other buttons. (stop, faster, slower,  
preferences) we can keep them in the menuitems. Especially in the small  
view.

The part on the right side of the buttons should contain a LCD screen  
like image which contains the time and title information.
It should be similar to the iTunes design or possibly the QT Player  
design. We already have a similar position slider developed for this.  
(jlj did this)
The title information should scroll.
The image to 'round off' the LCD should probably be a scaled vector  
graphic like they use in QT player.

Next up is the playlist view. i was thinking of adding row numbers and  
implementing some way to show the currently playing item.
Another possible addition might be the duration time. the row's will  
have alternating colours of course. ;)

At the bottom I would like to add some playlist specific functions.
loop, repeat, shuffle and 'item info' spring to mind at the moment.
The text field to the right should sum up the number of items in the  
playlist and maybe later if possible the total playing time (not  
possible atm i think).
I have chosen not to provide an add/remove item button. I think drag  
and drop and the menuitems take more then care of this.

I can implement this new interface by myself. it's just that i need  
someone to take care of the graphics, which i simply don't have the  
talent for.
Without someone who is going to take care of this, I'm not going to  
spend any time on this, because it would simply be ugly.

Is there anyone out there who would like to contribute on this design?
Suggestions, comments are welcomed.
Do you think this might be better then our current design? (Beautifully  
designed by David Webber i might add ;)
Flamewars will be /dev/null'ed

Derk-Jan Hartman

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Universiteit Twente
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Derk-Jan 'The DJ' Hartman
ICQnr: 10111559
Mail:  mailto:d.hartman at student.utwente.nl
WWW:   http://home.student.utwente.nl/d.hartman/
Goto:  http://www.student.utwente.nl/~macsatcampus

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