Rockboxed - gigabeat - proposed revisions

[JustJohnny]

Hi,

I've started working on revisions to the Rockboxed theme for larger screens.

Thanks to everyone who have made suggestions.  Currently the two most requested theme changes are:

1) To much blank space, add some extra information to the screen.
2) The yellowish-orange (or orangeish-yellow) background color is horrible, maybe a lighter shade of yellow.

Here some screenshots,  Current in the builds and my proposed revisions.

Current	Proposed
Proposed by Mannequin	Proposed iPod like next song icon

I'm not sure I like the animated next song information. I'm thinking perhaps having a static next song title only.  Which next "Next Song" icon do you prefer? The combination play button pointing to line, or the fast forward button pointing to line. I think the first looks a little better, but the second reflects the "Next Song" button image found on my iPod nano.

[attachment deleted by admin, too old]

[mannequin]

JustJohnny,

again, i think your theme is great and really "suits" the rockbox "mood".

my opinion about the changes:
- current "orange-yellow" (rockbox logo color) looks way better than the proposed "lime-yellow".
- date / time - very nice addition, looks good
- animated next artist/song title gets my vote
- i'd try to go with nimbus-14 (19 looks too big for the music folders)
- codec info followed by bitrate might be nice (mp3/192kbps)

[Peter200lx]

I'd agree that the original background color is better. (At least in my opinion)

[psycho_maniac]

JustJohnny,

again, i think your theme is great and really "suits" the rockbox "mood".

my opinion about the changes:
- current "orange-yellow" (rockbox logo color) looks way better than the proposed "lime-yellow".
- date / time - very nice addition, looks good
- animated next artist/song title gets my vote
- i'd try to go with nimbus-14 (19 looks too big for the music folders)
- codec info followed by bitrate might be nice (mp3/192kbps)

I agree with  everything you said.

[markun]

I still prefer the current one, nice and simple.

[jmsunlinenet]

How about something like this? Gets rid of the horrid yellow, almost, but picks up the secondary color of the Rockbox logo and uses it as the screen background for a clean, clear look, then brings back the yellow a bit in the progress bar.

I would want to include the estimated battery time left function as this is very useful if you are thinking of playing a drama or something long and don't have the charger to hand. Most people have wrist watches or cell phones that give time and date, and in cars there is always a clock, so the time and date functions are less crucial, especially as the screen will mostly be dark when playing.

[attachment deleted by admin, too old]

[LinusN]

How about something like this? Gets rid of the horrid yellow, almost, but picks up the secondary color of the Rockbox logo and uses it as the screen background for a clean, clear look, then brings back the yellow a bit in the progress bar.

I like it a lot!!! Much better than the original one.

[Llorean]

I like it a lot as well.

[jmsunlinenet]

Thanks, and here is another suggestion or two:

The font is loaded from the configuration file, which can easily be edited, so it might make sense to install one default font and then a couple of alternates in the config file as comments like this:

font: /.rockbox/fonts/unifont.fnt
#font: /.rockbox/fonts/alternate1.fnt (this is an alternate font)
#font: /.rockbox/fonts/alternate2.fnt (and this is another font you might like)

because although you can load fonts from the display menu, every time you reload the theme, you have to go looking for that font again, if you can remember what it was. This way, you could pick what font you wanted and have it there permanently.

Then you could do the same thing with the backdrop screens, i.e.  provide them in three or four different colors that work reasonably well, so that they could be changed from the config file if someone really wanted to bother, rather than mess around with the RGB values on the display menu and lose your work if the battery dies on you, etc. Of course, once you have a backdrop in there, you can edit it any way you want with a program like Paint.net while it is on your Gigabeat, so providing a blank backdrop screen for the do-it-yourself type could be useful too.

Then in the WPS file, you might be able to allocate certain spots on the screen to optional functions like estimated battery time left, time and date, or whatever, and give the user some directions as comments on the file that will enable he or she to pick what function or functions they would like to have there.

Now, I am not a programmer, so these are just ideas I am tossing out as to how I, as a retail user, might like to have the appearance of the screen.

[bascule]

There's some interesting ideas there, but considering the problems some new users have in even installing a WPS, maybe it would be better to simply provide a number of appropriately-named .cfg files which refer to a numer of different .wps files?

Of course this would be messy in the theme browser:
Rockboxed - original
Rockboxed - clean
Rockboxed - max options
Rockboxed - album art
etc...

It would be good if the theme browser supported tree/folder navigation, then you could have all the Rockboxed variations in a separate place...

I really like the idea of some sort of interactive option setting for a given 'set' of themes, but I'm struggling to see how that can be without the use of some external application/script.

[jmsunlinenet]

Yes, I see what you mean. But since Rockboxed comes with the initial install, the user does not have to know how to install a WPS to be able to use it, so the idea of having a number of config files is not a bad one, because selecting one from the Browse Themes menu is easy to do.

If you have to choose from

Rockbox pink
Rockbox yellow
Rockbox blue

that is pretty easy to do.

Of course, using Rockbox as an end user like me is a bit different, maybe from being a developer. If I want to edit, say my background screen or config files, all I have to do is hook up the Gigabeat, then look on the Recently Edited list in Paint.net or Open Office and make the changes I want.

Ultimately this issue goes to the question of who is Rockbox for? I discovered it a few weeks ago, because I bought my very first mp3 player just before Xmas, then was disappointed that it did not work the way I wanted. With Rockbox I could organize my albums, podcasts, and photo exactly the way I wanted.

With the orgininal Gigabeat software all sort of problems would arise. For example was the album Exodus by Bob Marley, or by Bob Marley and the Wailers? I would have to go into two different submenus to look for it, and then when it came to music by Various Artists, that was a nightmare. And was Grease! filed under Broadway, or under Rock? The list of problems was endless. And I did not want to be solving them at 70 mph in heavy traffic on I 75.

Having an mp3 player in the first place pretty much presupposes the user having access to a laptop or desktop computer, and knowing how to use it, which rules in many people, but also rules out a large number.

However, whichever way you look at it, it seems a no brainer that Rockbox should come with a user interface installed that would have clarity, simplicity, and functionality, and please most retail users and not need to be modified except by those who enjoy fiddling.

My current WPS is attached, and I don't anticipate making any more changes as it is good enough, and I have spent far too much time playing around with it! I added in the Estimated Battery Life at the top, because that seemed to me one of the few functions that is pretty useful.



[attachment deleted by admin, too old]