(2017-05-26, 14:18)Martijn Wrote: We were sick of confluence and wanted something new that included most new coding tech we had.

(2017-05-26, 14:18)Martijn Wrote: We felt that confluence was definitely not the first user friendly choice to get started with Kodi.

(2017-05-26, 14:16)frankvw Wrote: I do note that many who installed Confluence from the repo on Kodi 17 complain about settings that have disappeared after a reboot, especially (but not exclusively) on the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3. I'm having the same problem, as well as serious stability issues that I suspect may also be skin related. (I'm currently using Xonfluence).

(2017-05-26, 14:45)trogggy Wrote: Just to chip in and say I've been using xonfluence on krypton since it was first available (a good few months ago) and it's been rock-solid. Post in the skin thread if you have an issue, but I honestly doubt any 'serious stability issues' are down to the skin. Saying that I turn off everything I can so you never know.

Quote:To start out, I'd like to suggest watching the first 8 minutes or so of this video deconstructing the ideas behind material design. A quick summary is that design should be easy to understand. The user should be able to see that his or her actions clearly caused an action. The most important elements of a screen should be plainly visible. And any important actions on a screen be highlighted and colored in such a way as to differentiate.



While I don't necessarily suggest that we simply take something like the Android TV design for our own, I think we'd definitely benefit from the ideas they are pushing with material design. Also, I think we should start not with what's possible in Kodi, but with what would be preferred in an ideal environment.

I have some ideas for what I think might be nice. I may wireframe those in the next few days. A quick summary of those ideas, though, is that most, if not all, content should be as accessible as possible from the home screen. The parts of the home screen dealing with content should clearly be separated from the parts dealing with settings, system, etc. Doing something like adding a new video source should be related to existing media, if there is any, but also marginally differentiated, to make clear that you are looking at an action. Also, when you add a video source, the very first question should be a visual representation of the question "What kind of content does this source contain?" That should not be a question relagated to the end like some kind of afterthought.

Adding a source should be clear with every step, should use as much imagery as possible, and should not show windows densely packed with words. Also, once a source has been added, if it creates a home menu, like adding TV Shows for the first time, an animation should clearly show this behavior occur on the home screen.

Pretty-fying imagery should be limited, preferably existing only to better explain what's happening on the screen.

This one might be the most controversial: Selecting a piece of content should not automatically play it. Instead, it should launch an info screen where clicking again results in playing the video, but most of the available options currently found in the context menu and already existing info screen are made available to the user.

(2017-05-26, 15:09)natethomas Wrote: And so we end up with a system that's AWESOME for library users and meh for addon users.

(2017-05-26, 15:09)natethomas Wrote: Here is my original post when suggesting a major shift away from Confluence.

(2017-05-26, 15:53)trogggy Wrote: I'd guess anyone used to custom shortcuts wouldn't find the default skin AWESOME. For me that's all it's missing - the rest is a question of taste.

(2017-05-26, 16:30)frankvw Wrote: Your desire to make the user interface more intuitive and usable may be insufficiently understood, seeing as most people (including myself) initially judge by taste rather than methodology. Personally I don't like the style and the looks of Estuary and rather prefer something that's easier on the eyes than a field of solid colored rectangles. Which proves you can't please everyone.

(2017-05-26, 17:11)natethomas Wrote:

(2017-05-26, 15:53)trogggy Wrote: I'd guess anyone used to custom shortcuts wouldn't find the default skin AWESOME. For me that's all it's missing - the rest is a question of taste.

Yeah, custom shortcuts were one of those things we spent a lot of time going back and forth on. At significant issue (if I remember right) is that they aren't cleanly done in the underlying code, which means to get them in a skin requires some hacking, which was frowned upon for a default, vanilla skin. And figuring out how to do them right in the underlying code was something nobody was willing or able to take on at the time.

There is actually a wishlist a mile long of pieces of GUI code that we'd like updated. Beyond cleanly allowing for shortcuts, a big one is allowing for multiple lists outside of the homepage. So, for example, when I open the Rooster Teeth addon, I'm presented with top level folders, and to see what's inside, I have to drill down another level. Ideally, each of those folders should actually be a heading, and all the content should be accessible and visible from every heading all at once, just like how the different headings in Movies works in the home screen in Estuary.

But with volunteer open source, you always take what you can get and try to prioritize the most important things first.

(2017-05-26, 17:26)Martijn Wrote: We do not want hacks in our default skin and that was something that was decided before we started. We either do it correctly or we don't. What other skins do is up to them