I also think Ferenc's suggestions are the general way to go. We'd have to
agree on the concrete priorities, but we need to tighten up what we've got.

A couple of quick comments:

- I am no big fan of palettes, but if CC remembers what I had opened last,
I could live with them happily. What we could possibly implement is some
"snap" feature, to snap all your open pallettes together, and therefore
those people who prefer single windows could make one, and CC would
remember that pref as well.
- I don't think there is a need to change the functionality of the
scratchpad. We just have to make it less central to the concept (plus I
don't know how you would use it as a jingle repository -- how would you
play the jingles), for starters, let's just have an option "keep Scratchpad
minimized" so that it doesn't jump at you each time you touch something.
- We need to focus on enhancements to the Live Mode (including the Live
Assist mode) that Ian was going to make, and on the improvements to the
front end of the storage server (media library or search).
- Finally, I don't think the general design concept, as given on page 16 in
Charles's style guide
(http://code.campware.org/~doug/styleguide/campcaster_styleguide.pdf) is
outdated. It's just that we're only about 1/2 (2/3?) of the way there.

Sava




|---------+---------------------------->
| | Douglas.Arellanes|
| | @mdlf.org |
| | |
| | 04/01/2007 07:29 |
| | AM |
| | Please respond to|
| | campcaster-dev |
| | |
|---------+---------------------------->
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: campcaster-dev@campware.org |
| cc: |
| Subject: Re: [campcaster-dev] Studio Redesign |
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|





Paul,


I couldn't agree more with what Ferenc has already said.

The only thing I wanted to add was that any changes to the UI at this point
should not be considered without extensive input from actual users. Now
that we have users and real-world environments where the software is
running, it would be crazy not to take advantage of that.


doug




Ferenc Gerlits
To:
campcaster-dev@campware.org
cc:
01/04/2007 12:37 PM Subject: Re:
Please respond to [campcaster-dev] Studio Redesign
campcaster-dev






Hi Paul,

I think we could make Studio into a usable Live Assist system with
relatively minor changes. It would be a huge waste to stop now, start
over from scratch, and spend months on a complete redesign. These are
the minor changes I have in mind:

Usage scenario:

1. The audio technician opens a file browser to a USB stick or a network
drive, selects the files prepared by the journalists, and drops them on
a desktop shortcut for the Mass Import script.

2. He starts up Studio, which opens the sub-windows to the configuration
in which he left them the previous day.

3a. The Search window has an option for searching for files added
recently. He finds the files he just added, and drags them over to the
Live Mode window.

3b. Optionally: searches for some more files, and adds these to the Live
Mode window as well.

3c. He adds some jingles from the Scratchpad to the Live Mode Window.

4. He rearranges the files in the Live Mode window to the correct order;
marks some of them as "beds", ie, background sounds which will loop
continuously when played.

5. He presses a (customizable) key to start playing the top item in the
Live Mode Window; this key would do this no matter which window is
selected. He can also double-click an item possibly different from the
top one, to play it out of order.

6. He logs out, exits Studio, exits the studio, and goes home.

The changes we'd need to implement for this are the following:

* Modify the mass import script to accept directories and files mixed
together (at the moment, you have to specify -f or -d).

* Remember the open/closed state of windows at logout.

* Implement a "search for recently added" feature in the Search window.

* Implement drag and drop between Studio windows.

* Forget the idea that everything touched goes to the Scratchpad
window, and use it as a jingle bank instead.

* Add an Automatic/Manual switch to the Live Mode window.

* Implement a global hotkey which activates the Play button in the
Live Mode window.

These are all small changes which can be done in the next weeks, instead
of months, and would noticeably improve the usability.

After this, there are (bigger) second tier features we can do:

* Allow for mass import directly into Studio.

* Implement an audio properties pop-up window for displaying (possibly
editing) metadata.

* Integrate the Scheduler into Studio, including a nicer Scheduler
window, with day view.

* Grey out instead of remove played items in the Live Mode window, and
allow the contents to be saved as a playlist metafile.

* Support for web stream inputs.

* Support for streaming the output to a web stream.

* Allow the user to save his user name, password and preferred
language, so in a single-user setting he wouldn't have to log in every
time he starts Studio.

* etc

Completely redesigning the interface to make it single-windowed, in my
mind, comes somewhere way down the list, after all of the above are
finished. Having said that, I _would_ like to rewrite Studio in
libglade: that would mean separating the code from the visual design, so
it would allow creative people to redraw windows (change color, spacing,
placement of widgets) without any change in the C++ code. That would be
a good thing, and I hope Sava can find the budget for it, but it
probably won't be easy.

Ferenc






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