Amarok Blog

Yesterdays blog entry about a prototype QDockWidget based Amarok 2 interface got a nearly overwhelming amount of positive feedback. So let me start out by saying thank you to everyone who commented.

It did make us think about some things though. Since the vast majority of comments would very much like to see this feature included in Amarok, you guys must have some kind of idea what you would actually use this flexibility for, and what kind of layout you want to create. So today we are going to try to do a little experiment based on all this feedback.

What we would greatly appreciate is if you would do a small simple mockup of what kind of layout you think you would create using this feature and post it to imagebin.ca or somewhere similar and then link it in the comments below, if possible with a very short description text. We are not talking about spending hours in the Gimp making a pretty picture, a simple pencil-on-the-back-of-a-napkin type sketch will do just fine. All it should show is how you would, based only on the possibilities show in the video, arrange the main interface elements, which ones would be placed where, hidden completely, or stacked together using tabs. A very important note is that this is not a free form chance to dream up an entirely new interface, but only about what you would change if this new feature became available. To keep things simple, please post each new mockup as a separate top level reply.

We know that the results of this will be quite biased, as what seems like a really good layout in theory might not work when you actually try it out in the real world. So ideally this experiment should really be done after this feature has made it into Amarok, but since there is currently no timeline for that, we are going to do this as best we can anyway!

The really interesting thing to see here is whether everyone has their own personal ideas about what would be a good interface layout, or if many of the suggestions gravitate towards something similar.

If we get enough feedback on this, we will follow up later with another blog post about the result and any lessons learned.

If any of you needs to revisit the video, here is the direct link.