Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming iPad App - Focus Interface?

Focus is good but the iPad implementation is bad, in two ways.

First, there are some practical flaws:
. The Genre list is far too long, hierarchical taxonomy is not used, and they could drop the empty genres.
. Most types of filter require Add... But album info and forensics do not.
. A lot of clicks
I find that I don't use it much on the iPad.

But more fundamentally, the user interface hasn't really absorbed the touch metaphor. It is sort of a touchy Windows 95 model. (And W95 was designed in 1992, 20 years ago...)

Consider Search. I hit Search icon, a dialog box pops up, I start typing. To their credit, it refines the search per character, and I don't have to specify search artist or album or track, it searches all (unlike Rhapsody). But it doesn't search credits. Unlike credit focus: I open an album, view Credits, touch Paul Motian, and it focuses on all albums where Motian played. Focus understands Credits without explicitly being told to, Search does not...

But more fundamentally, I Search for Miles, a lot of albums show up. In a text list. Why? We have a really good album display. Why isn't search an instantaneous filtering of the main list, like focus?

And if I select an album in the search result, I get a dialog box with See album details, Queue album, Play now...Cancel. Don't need that, if the albums show up in the main display, I know how to view it, I know how to play it. Fewer clicks. Fewer concepts. Less learning.

In fact, why is search distinct from focus? They have slightly different semantics, search doesn't change the current focus. Seems powerful. But is this comprehensible? Is the search within the current focus? If you open album details from search and then close it, do you land in the same focus? Are you sure? Not worth the trouble.

And all these modal dialogs...

Imagine if the main album display had a set of filters on top, always visible. Including Search. You select something from Genre or Composer, and the list is focused. You type Miles in the search box, and the list is focused, on Miles Davis and on 900 Miles by Bethany and Rufus. No dialog boxes, no new ways to look at a list or choose an album.

And a sort order selector. Sort by Import date, we no longer need Recently imported albums under Explore.

Fewer concepts is a good thing.