Zune inspired media player (Phase)

[Glenn Ruysschaert]

Hey everyone,
Today I got kind of fed up with Xbox Music. Zune was running on my desktop so I decided, why not bring some elements of the Zune UI to a new music player? So, I got to work. After a couple of hours I already achieved some results, I called it Phase.
I also wanted to cut back on the amount of buttons and clutter on the screen, to keep a clean and fast UI and UX.

My plans for this player are:
- Easy playback controls (tap the screen to play/pause)
- Access your song collection based on artist, track title, genre and playlist (double tap the screen to access your songs).
- Customizable colors, so you can tweak the app to your preferences
- Normal shuffle and repeat behaviours
- Per day music played history
- Swipe to the right on a song to add to now playing list (don't know if I'll get this to work, never worked with gestures before)
- Slide over cut off text (like song title) to view the complete text
- Gradient color overlay moves slowly over the screen
- Small and large albums randomly appear and disappear

Up until now there's no loading screen, it runs instantly (without any annoying 'loading...' WP sometimes shows), so I probably won't make one.

This is a screenshot of what I achieved in a couple of hours. Suggestions, ideas?

 

[KarmaEcrivain94]

It's way too light. Make it darker, and eventually put a subtle gradient on top and underneath.

I'd be happy helping you design icons or parts of the UI btw

 

[Glenn Ruysschaert]

I didn't know the exact Zune colors, so I used an estimate as placeholder.
I'm planning on making it customizable anyway, so users can choose their own colors.

Sure, that'd be great!
You can send me designs and icon, proper credit will be given of course if I'd use your work.

Btw,
Use of the longlistselector is not an option, as there are known memory leaks when loadin big chunks of data which can cause the app to crash (this is Microsoft's fault, little that developers can do to solve it).

 

[K_Arora5]

The screen shot looks good to me. And i like that we can customize the background of the app.

 

[Aryankr21]

When it would be developed plz do add me in your beta version as I am testing 5 beta apps on my Lumia 525

 

[Glenn Ruysschaert]

It is already in development, I'm making it in my spare time.
There will be a public beta when I feel it's ready for testing :wink:

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

I'd be down for a beta test when ready

 

[Glenn Ruysschaert]

Great, the more the merrier :grin:
I'll post in this thread, along with a store link when it's done

 

[K_Arora5]

Any progress?

 

[Glenn Ruysschaert]

Not yet, I just published my Nest app today.
Now I can focus on this

 

[Ticomfreak]

I'd be willing to test as well.

 

[Jonnie LasVegas]

Looks good! Patiently waiting for the beta!

 

[Glenn Ruysschaert]

Progress is slow, I'm, trying to port my Nest app to W8 as well. But Im running W10 and messed up Visual Studio (the development software) quite a bit so I keep running into random crashes etc. Hope Microsoft fixes this soon so I can resume proper development!

 

[KarmaEcrivain94]

Here is a concept I did for the app (I know Glenn has already seen them, but it's just for the "public")

 

[someone2639]

This looks worth testing!

 

[Ticomfreak]

Move hamburger to the top left instead for consistency. Other than that, neato

 

[stevemind]

Me please.......And thanks for your hard work

 

[Kevin Rush]

Dare I say it? Can you change the hamburger to elipses and move it to the lower right? I hope there are pivots/panorama.

I use the Zune PC software all the time. It still works and syncs with MICROSOFT account and Music Pass. The store is still called Zune Msrketplace.

 

[Kevin Rush]

So. My comment, totally stopped the discussion? Are you flabbergasted by my comment to follow the Windows Phone elegant modern UI design? Just wondering?