2007-07-08, 10:03 PM
Is there a way to run the old UI on the MVP (since Net Radio, for example, isn't present on the new one)? It's easy enough on the PC but for the MVP I don't know how.
Overall I think the new UI is sharper and nicer in my limited experience so far. You characterized it as a beta of sorts, which is probably a bit modest, so take these opinions lightly:
Main menu - only a few items are visible before they scroll off, making it hard to see what's where and wasting a lot of real estate. There looks to be some room between where things scroll off and the edges of the skin's curve - a few more items could fit, allowing more to be seen at once. Being able to see more items (to me) means I can go right to it instead of going slowly and waiting for the item to appear. Also, changing the color or jogging the selected item to the left a bit would further contrast it from non-highlighted items.
TV Guide - the show popup is better overall but the buttons are smaller - the bigger ones in the old UI were a bit easier to read. (The coloring is better than the outlining, though.)
The buttons on the left in the recordings/videos/music sections are just text until selected/hovered. I think that's pretty common in UIs now (eg Microsoft toolbars) but when stuff on the right is selected it just looks like a bunch of text.
I wouldn't mind an option to turn the animations off (or have a "noop" animation). They're neat once but after that just cause me to wait (even if it's 1/2 second).
Overall, though, it looks very sharp. A little more muted and professional - good work. I was on 98.13 and the upgrade seems to have worked flawlessly. Great job again.
Overall I think the new UI is sharper and nicer in my limited experience so far. You characterized it as a beta of sorts, which is probably a bit modest, so take these opinions lightly:
Main menu - only a few items are visible before they scroll off, making it hard to see what's where and wasting a lot of real estate. There looks to be some room between where things scroll off and the edges of the skin's curve - a few more items could fit, allowing more to be seen at once. Being able to see more items (to me) means I can go right to it instead of going slowly and waiting for the item to appear. Also, changing the color or jogging the selected item to the left a bit would further contrast it from non-highlighted items.
TV Guide - the show popup is better overall but the buttons are smaller - the bigger ones in the old UI were a bit easier to read. (The coloring is better than the outlining, though.)
The buttons on the left in the recordings/videos/music sections are just text until selected/hovered. I think that's pretty common in UIs now (eg Microsoft toolbars) but when stuff on the right is selected it just looks like a bunch of text.
I wouldn't mind an option to turn the animations off (or have a "noop" animation). They're neat once but after that just cause me to wait (even if it's 1/2 second).
Overall, though, it looks very sharp. A little more muted and professional - good work. I was on 98.13 and the upgrade seems to have worked flawlessly. Great job again.
