Making a better Music (Xbox Music) Experience

[Ali El]

Here's the Detailed Design I was talking about...!

http://forums.windowscentral.com/attachments/xbox-music/65950d1399544347-final.jpg

That's very sleek, clear and makes sense. I like it, Metro, yet usable. Do you know who the author is? so we can work with him/her to incorporate or work on a collab. I'll dissect the design and see what will feel nice.

 

[Ali El]

Local music playback is most important for me too btw.. Wish you luck with app

Exactly. My music player should play MY music and THEN some. Not the other way around. haha Thank you, if you can, would be cool if you could test it in the process.

 

[Ali El]

Can I like make a concept so you can get ideas?

YEEES!!! let's see it :smile: the more the better.

 

[schetz]

Exactly. My music player should play MY music and THEN some. Not the other way around. haha Thank you, if you can, would be cool if you could test it in the process.

Sure,just let me know when available, will be glad to test it and give feedback.. Thnx

 

[HyperKid]

That's very sleek, clear and makes sense. I like it, Metro, yet usable. Do you know who the author is? so we can work with him/her to incorporate or work on a collab. I'll dissect the design and see what will feel nice.

If your trying to ask that who made this,it's a fan concept I found on WPC forums.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

I've given up on XBOX music. Canceling my pass and unpinning it. Using one music as well

 

[Topataco]

I'd take the app for a spin given the chance, I only have like two albums on my phone due to a broken laptop, but I'm up for playing around and giving two cents. Hope you do track down that designer, that album view idea, particularly the third screen with the different sized tiles, like in the Zune background, looks great. Maybe somewhere down the line in development you could add some color customization options or do a poll for a few themes in the first release. Oh and check out Listen, Muse and Music+, they have some good design ideas, primarily Muse. (sorry! I tend to ramble a lot)

 

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

Look, I hate panorama and some pivots (bing pivots is gorgeus)
But I like de UI of Xbox Music for Windows 8

 

[Pierre Blackwell]

I like the smart DJ feature that you have for Zune.

 

[Ali El]

I'd take the app for a spin given the chance, I only have like two albums on my phone due to a broken laptop, but I'm up for playing around and giving two cents. Hope you do track down that designer, that album view idea, particularly the third screen with the different sized tiles, like in the Zune background, looks great. Maybe somewhere down the line in development you could add some color customization options or do a poll for a few themes in the first release. Oh and check out Listen, Muse and Music+, they have some good design ideas, primarily Muse. (sorry! I tend to ramble a lot)

I was thinking about that, if we might need a poll for selecting a design or not, and since everyone's is worried about the design, it just makes it all the more important. It's either a poll is held or a way for the app to handle themes or UI changes... No luck finding that designer and thanks, all the testers will be needed. I'm thinking of opening an email discussion group for testing for dev. If anyone is interested. Let me know

 

[Topataco]

I was thinking about that, if we might need a poll for selecting a design or not, and since everyone's is worried about the design, it just makes it all the more important. It's either a poll is held or a way for the app to handle themes or UI changes... No luck finding that designer and thanks, all the testers will be needed. I'm thinking of opening an email discussion group for testing for dev. If anyone is interested. Let me know

Well I found this reddit client called Snuwu that pretty much nails what I meant by themes in the app. Not so much drastic design changes, just color palette switches you know, to spice things up a bit. The one thing I hate about most music apps in the store is all of that negative black space in it, and for the design of the app why not dig around Deviant Art? I'm sure we could find someone that could help. Personally, I came to Windows Phone because of the design, so that's why I regard that highest above other features, hopefully we can make all of these ideas into something awesome.

 

[smoledman]

IT's obvious after 10 updates that the XBox Music team is hopeless. Whoever is in charge should be fired, replace all the engineers and start from scratch. Look at iOS Music and Google Music apps for inspiration.

 

[schetz]

While I do believe design is important , I believe that,in music app at least, functionality should come first.Only my perspective of course.
On Android I tried a lot of music player, and while some of them were pleasant to look at , at the same time, they were not all that easy to operate. As it's first a music app, meant to listen and not to stare at the phone while listening, clear and easy buttons positions are somewhat mandatory. It's also nice if they are consistent thru the app, no matter are you in album selection list or in "now playing" section..
Anyway, on Android I settled with Apollo or CM music player not because it was the nicest app (it clearly wasn't) but because it was fast and so easy to use that I could handle it almost without looking at the phone entire time.

Design can be "upgraded" later on anyway

 

[Ali El]

Well I found this reddit client called Snuwu that pretty much nails what I meant by themes in the app. Not so much drastic design changes, just color palette switches you know, to spice things up a bit. The one thing I hate about most music apps in the store is all of that negative black space in it, and for the design of the app why not dig around Deviant Art? I'm sure we could find someone that could help. Personally, I came to Windows Phone because of the design, so that's why I regard that highest above other features, hopefully we can make all of these ideas into something awesome.

That's great, maybe that person can help us create a sweet experience. The black space is somehow tied so close to the UI in WP that one has to create some sort of engine to handle serious graphical UI's as I am sure many people used slow apps that try to overload each page with too many XAML controls, resulting in lagged experiences such as the Beats Music App. I look everywhere for UI inspiration but like I said before, I have an idea for a UI, all I have to do is to make it and see what the people say. I still want to work with designers and such to see what can be done.

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IT's obvious after 10 updates that the XBox Music team is hopeless. Whoever is in charge should be fired, replace all the engineers and start from scratch. Look at iOS Music and Google Music apps for inspiration.

Hahaha, maybe they should hire us instead :winktongue: sometimes it's better to give a project to a small group (maybe a studio) that have time to focus on the finer details. The problem with WP is that, it's still playing catch up on the most basic of apps, so they have to rush things, and the result? well we know. but they are closing the gap, we just have to hang in there and do the best we can.

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While I do believe design is important , I believe that,in music app at least, functionality should come first.Only my perspective of course.
On Android I tried a lot of music player, and while some of them were pleasant to look at , at the same time, they were not all that easy to operate. As it's first a music app, meant to listen and not to stare at the phone while listening, clear and easy buttons positions are somewhat mandatory. It's also nice if they are consistent thru the app, no matter are you in album selection list or in "now playing" section..
Anyway, on Android I settled with Apollo or CM music player not because it was the nicest app (it clearly wasn't) but because it was fast and so easy to use that I could handle it almost without looking at the phone entire time.

Design can be "upgraded" later on anyway

You're also right, if it looks like a million dollars but works like a buck, what's the point? That balance is very important. The only problem with upgrading to a new UI is that people aren't keen on changes, so they might write a hundred hateful posts about how "The old one was better" and never adopt it no matter what. I was thinking of that approach, to go extremely basic and then add the "skin" later but I am not sure that's the best. I think it would rather be better if we build the UI and keep modifying and fixing until it just works, who knows, maybe MSFT will even look at us for inspiration.

Anyone have ideas for a name? (I know we are light years away from that, but why not)

 

[alllies]

Got a title in mind..."MuziX"...the app that killed Xbox and Zune Music, that's if you will add support for WP7.X.lol

 

[Ali El]

Got a title in mind..."MuziX"...the app that killed Xbox and Zune Music, that's if you will add support for WP7.X.lol

The X factor huh hahahah. hey that's pretty nice.

 

[smoledman]

Every day I guy I know mocks Windows Phone because of things like this. He literally has this smirk on his face which says "I told you so".

 

[thundr51]

Good luck with this. My advice would be to check the APIs first, then think about the functionality. I tried to make a music player sometime ago and a lot of the basic functions (creating/saving a playlist for example) weren't possible. I haven't looked at it lately so it's possible that's changed.

 

[Ali El]

Good luck with this. My advice would be to check the APIs first, then think about the functionality. I tried to make a music player sometime ago and a lot of the basic functions (creating/saving a playlist for example) weren't possible. I haven't looked at it lately so it's possible that's changed.

That's why I said I want to do some research on the matter, since I know the RUNTIME API's have new media capabilities. So far I am seeing file access as well a StreamSource possibilities, so we could start making our own functionality to keep track of the songs and such, this is of course if all else fails. Will take time and knowing my limits will show me where I stand, also the Xbox Music API's and calls have to be checked out. Still nice to see what people are hating on and having problems with so I can know what to fix.

If you look on MSDN, it shows new Media API's for Silverlight 8.1 and many Media and Media Related for the UNIVERSAL (Which uses windows based API's) as well as the RUNTIME (This is confusing ). I want to make a decision that isn't going to bite me later. Research, Research, and some more RESEARCH. This might give off the effect as nothing is happening towards the project, but i'll keep everything open so people that are following know what is happening.

Thanks though, we will need it, knowing Windows Phone...

 

[thundr51]

That's why I said I want to do some research on the matter, since I know the RUNTIME API's have new media capabilities. So far I am seeing file access as well a StreamSource possibilities, so we could start making our own functionality to keep track of the songs and such, this is of course if all else fails. Will take time and knowing my limits will show me where I stand, also the Xbox Music API's and calls have to be checked out. Still nice to see what people are hating on and having problems with so I can know what to fix.

If you look on MSDN, it shows new Media API's for Silverlight 8.1 and many Media and Media Related for the UNIVERSAL (Which uses windows based API's) as well as the RUNTIME (This is confusing ). I want to make a decision that isn't going to bite me later. Research, Research, and some more RESEARCH. This might give off the effect as nothing is happening towards the project, but i'll keep everything open so people that are following know what is happening.

Thanks though, we will need it, knowing Windows Phone...

Yeah, the whole Silverlight 8, WinRuntime, Win 8 thing can be a bit confusing. Just as a tip, take a look at the XNA stuff as well. I don't know if you'll be able to use it with the WinRT/Universal stuff, but there's lots of media stuff there (I built a music player back in 7.5 days....hmm, I should revisit that...eventually).