Bugzilla – Bug 6650
Fast scrolling background characters could be positioned better
Last modified: 2009-09-08 09:18:13 UTC
Ok. Almost as niggly as the full stop/period after "Free your Music" but I notice that when fast scrolling those new large background characters indicating whearebouts you are in the list are centred vertically on the whole width of the screen and vary in width. This leads the edges of many of them to be overlaid by, and interfere with, the album art or placement graphics and so ends up looking a bit sort of scrappy and messy. I think it might be better if these background characters were not vertically centered on the whole screen but only centered on the part with the description text in it (i.e. not including the album art). Then the width of the characters ought to be set such that they never interfered with the album art. This would look neater and more cohesive.
Simon, I'm not following. Can you clarify or attach an image?
I almost wonder if you're joking! I'm afraid it's very difficult to provide an image as I would be scrolling quite fast before the large background characters would show. And then I'd have to take a snap with my electronic camera (with associated delay) at exactly the time one of the wider characters shot past. I've read my post and I don't think I can make it any clearer (sorry). The left hand side of the new background characters characters mixeswith/interferes with/is overlaid by/ the album art. I think the large characters should not be vertically centered on the whole screen but just on the part with text on (i.e. excluding the album art), and then the width/size of the characters set accordingly so that they did not mix it up with the qwl=buim art but kept clear of it. Sorry, I can't get any clearer. Can anyone else help?
Ok, I re-read it and I've got it now. Sorry for being dense, Simon. Noah: can you look at the design of this and suggest an improvement to the large-letter layout?
Created attachment 2693 [details] background letter example. it's worse with a wider letter (like W) and with opaque artwork. one suggestion would be to put the letter on top of the artwork, with a transparency.
It'd be better if the large characters just used the space available to them to the right of the artwork... although I realise that this would make the Album screen a special case and so might not be possible or practical. Personally I don't think the large characters and the artwork should overlap each other in any way as it looks a bit messy and confused.
After discussing with Dean we'll address this post 7.0.
Also.... might it look better if a fixed width font were used (especially as the the characters flash past)? The space available is a fixed width.
Noah, can you review the current ui and recreate a reference for the scrolling letters. Thanks.
Richard, I will take a look at this and provide artwork ASAP. Are there any restrictions/limitations I should be aware about in regards to the software?
Reset priority
Created attachment 3197 [details] Fast Scroll Concept 1
Created attachment 3198 [details] Fast Scroll Concept 2a with "w" The UI has a nice vertical column of negative space [btwn album artwork and scroll bar] we can utilize to align the letters as you scroll.
Created attachment 3199 [details] Fast Scroll Concept 2a with "s"
Created attachment 3200 [details] Fast Scroll Concept 3
Attached are several concepts of how we can treat the fast scrolling. I am still looking into a fixed width font that we can use [aka free:)]. Let the discussion begin...
Concept 2 gets my vote (easily). But fixed width font is a must. The width to be fixed as per the S looks best (clearest) in the album art screen, but might look a bit squashed up in the screens that do not contain album art. Concept 3 interferes with the album artwork (and as such I'm a bit unsure why it's included) The background of concept 1 seems to reduce the clarity and just add uneccessary confusion in a static shot. Not too sure if this confusion would be increased or decreased when scrolling fast though.
Ping Noah; do you think we can make a decision on this yet? The time for 7.0.1 is growing short.
They all look nice, but we need to see the placement/design on the screens without cover art. This certainly isn't a showstopper for 7.0.1, I propose we punt to 7.1.
bump to Noah
Dean, do you mean on a long list of something other than music? Playlists perhaps?
bump noah.
punting to 7.3
Ping, Noah, these bugs are assigned to you for 7.3/Falco
With recent development this bug is invalid. Please reopen if necessary.