Major Interface/Skin Changes (pics inside)

[Dubious]

I am not an XML programmer but I am decent in graphic design programs. I don't know anything about making major changes to the SJ graphical user interface. I do not know if my idea is even possible at all. That is why I am asking you.

I have a 15" touchscreen jukebox that I built. It works great but I do not like the user interface. I am currently running the Silverness_Touched skin at 1024x768. Most of the buttons/scroll bars are still too small for a touchscreen and the multiple views are confusing for some people. The layout needs to be much more simple and clean.

Is it possible to make a skin similar to this? One-click would be nice to have working for this too, but small changes can be made if that isn't possible.

Cover View:

cover_view.jpg (113.29 KiB) Viewed 3197 times

... When a user selects an album cover they are then taken to the "Track view" to select the song ...

Track View:

track_view.jpg (135.05 KiB) Viewed 3199 times

... An "Add to Playlist" button can be put here if one-click can not be created.

There really only need to be two screens:
1. Cover view - Allow the user to browse the music collection
2. Track view - Allow the user to select the track they want to add to the playlist

I don't understand why the default SJ interface is so complicated. Well, I do understand that some people want lots of features and functionality. But when in kiosk mode it should be much much more simple than it currently is.

Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas about this?

[Guest]

Functionality: The cover view should be possible as shown and a click will bring you to the track view. However, the track view will always show the previous/next album.

Design/Buttons: This should be possible as shown in your images.

Just as far as I understood Silverjuke ...

Regards,
B.

[djjb]

Guest wrote:
> However, the track view will always show the
> previous/next album.

I disagree. Just make the collumn-wide wide enough. than you see one album. i've done it with a workspace that's 1440pxl wide.

[Guest]

thats looking real good .....

[Dubious]

Guest wrote:
> thats looking real good .....

It sure is, but it doesn't exist. It isn't a real skin - its the skin that I want, but don't have the ability to make it. Apparently you didn't read the whole post but just looked at the pictures.

Are there any skinners out there who have the skills to program this thing? Who is the most famous SJ skin programmer?

[Guest]

I did read the whole post ... but I am not sure if its possible to make a skin like that ...

However it should be possible to make a skin resembling of that one, so lets hope someone wants to put the needed time into this project.

One question though, is that design really a useful solution or just looking good - I belive my musiccollection among with others are just to big to be manged with a design like that.

[Guest]

Dubious wrote:
> Who is the most famous SJ skin programmer?

Don't know - but currently, there is a skin contest (see ) - maybe this will answer your question And maybe one of the skinners will have some looks on your suggestions?

B.

[Dubious]

Guest wrote:
> One question though, is that design really a
> useful solution or just looking good - I believe my
> music collection among with others are just to big
> to be managed with a design like that.

Understood. I have about 700 albums which is likely on the small side of most people here. I think that any large collection is going to have the same problem. If you are browsing then you are going to have to scroll through hundreds of album art pics no matter what skin you use. But then again that is why the search function exists.

Other than displaying only 10 albums at a time, was there something specifically that you think is a flaw when it comes to large album collections?

[SilverEagle]

Dubious wrote:
> Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas about this?

I just discovered Silverjuke and I needed a challenge, so
I whipped up most of your design with just boxes

If you'd like to post (or pm me) your mockups (which I suppose they are) I could use them for my initial version (will take one or two more days). I suppose you are XML savvy enough to put the last pixels in place if I supply you with the basic layout and scripts?

Few questions:
1) What should the A-Z bar do, jump to the first album which it or limit the selection to only those?

2) What should the search do? I was imagining just a quick onscreen keyboard wich text search on album tite and bandtitle.

3) Are you sure you don't want any playlist? You could show a playlist after a time-out or so, giving the user an idea how long it will take before his song will play.
Alternatively you could only have a two-entry playlist, with just one pending song which is overwritten upon selection. Might show that pending song under the now-playing area.

Regards,
SilverEagle

[Dubious]

SilverEagle wrote:
> If you'd like to post (or pm me) your mockups
> (which I suppose they are) I could use them for my
> initial version (will take one or two more days).

Those are photos of a horribly quick-n-dirty mockup. I could go ahead and make 1024x768 images and send them along but I don't have them completed even close to cleanly right now. I literally took photos of a jukebox with my camera phone and used photoshop for 30 seconds to move some elements around as desired.

> I suppose you are XML savvy enough to put the last
> pixels in place if I supply you with the basic
> layout and scripts?

I know next to nothing about XML. I can do graphic design and HTML but have only looked at a couple of XML files in my lifetime. Did you mean to ask me if I have the graphical abilities to tweak images?

> Few questions:
> 1) What should the A-Z bar do, jump to the first
> album which it or limit the selection to only
> those?

It should serve the exact same purpose as it does in the default Silverjuke - it should jump to the first artist name that begins with that letter/number. It should not limit the selection to only that letter/number.

> 2) What should the search do? I was imagining just
> a quick onscreen keyboard wich text search on
> album tite and bandtitle.

It should serve the exact same purpose as it does in the default Silverjuke skins - it should allow the user to search for any artist/album/track name that appears in the database. If the config has the virtual keyboard turned on then yes - it should display the virtual keyboard for input.

> 3) Are you sure you don't want any playlist? You
> could show a playlist after a time-out or so,
> giving the user an idea how long it will take
> before his song will play.
> Alternatively you could only have a two-entry
> playlist, with just one pending song which is
> overwritten upon selection. Might show that
> pending song under the now-playing area.

I am not opposed to having a playlist displayed. I'm used to the pub-style jukeboxes that do not allow you to see the queue, but I suppose it would be nice to see the playlist in small scrollbox. I would be totally fine if it was not there, but if it was there I wouldn't be upset either. Even if it just said, "Next Song: <BandName> - <Trackname>" that would be good I suppose.

---

It sounds like you almost know what you are doing. :) If I would only have to submit full-screen graphic mockups of the GUI in order to provide my contribution I would be happy to start working on that. There might be some real expert graphic artists here who would be able to do a better job than me but I am happy to take a shot at it.