Author Topic: Cover view?  (Read 9617 times)

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Offline kozzmik

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Cover view?
« on: May 25, 2011, 08:41:45 pm »
Just curious if there are any plans for a cover view, where only covers are displayed on screen.

Offline rick.ca

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2011, 09:11:18 pm »
Not that I'm aware of.

Offline kozzmik

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2011, 09:20:54 pm »
Too bad, I think it would make a good addition, next to grid view.

Offline nostra

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2011, 07:40:23 pm »
I think it is not very practical if you have many movies, like > 100
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Offline kozzmik

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2011, 09:39:59 pm »
I don't think it's impractical.  Most music databases have such a view mode, and if you have ever used the web site "Library thing" for books, cover view is the most popular, and works very well, even for thousands of books. I have provided a link to my own account of 500 books at the end of this message if you want to have a look. It is certainly the most visually appealing way to interact with such programs and I personally would like to see it, but it is a small issue to me. On the other hand, just recently, when I told a friend about this program, his first question to me was "Does it have a cover view". So take it for what it's worth, but a great program either way. Since starting to use it, just a few weeks ago, I have been constantly surprised at the depth of features. Well done!


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http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?previousOffset=0&view=MarkBeronte&shelf=shelf&sort=rating&shelf_rows=10&previousOffset=0
« Last Edit: May 26, 2011, 09:49:26 pm by kozzmik »

Offline nostra

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2011, 09:45:57 pm »
I fully understand that such a view is more visually appealing, but I, personally, still find it not very usefull as the covers take too much space away and you need to open an extra window or switch back and force to view detailed info. I could such a view, thou, if many users need/want it...
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Offline rick.ca

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2011, 10:23:27 pm »
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I fully understand that such a view is more visually appealing, but I, personally, still find it not very usefull as the covers take too much space away and you need to open an extra window or switch back and force to view detailed info.

I agree. It's nice to look at—but then what? To be of any use, it would have to have some fluid method of displaying detailed information for a selected poster. The obvious would be a quick toggle between cover and movie views. But I imagine that might be too jarring for frequent toggling. To borrow an idea from another application, clicking on a poster could animate an enlargement and rotation of the poster—to show detailed information on the "back." I don't think that can be done in the normal display mode the program is restricted to. However, a skinnable pop-up on hover might work...

I can imagine a cover view being an effective way to view the results of a filter or search—when the primary interest is in the set of movies that match the criteria, rather than the details of any one of them. And then a pop-up information panel would provide detailed information even faster than the existing movie view. That would be very effective for answering questions like, "Why is this movie included?" and "Is this the one I'm looking for?" For full information or editing, a click could switch to the movie view of the selected item.


Offline nostra

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2011, 10:43:45 pm »
Yeah, smth like this could be of (limited) interest (especially for filters), but as I said, only if I get many requests for such a view.
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Offline kozzmik

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2011, 11:42:43 pm »
It's all a matter of goals. If your goal is to make something that is most useful to you, and then to share that with others, that is one thing. And there is nothing wrong with that goal, and in fact a lot right with it. I certainly couldn't quarrel with it. On the other hand, if the goal is to make the program appeal to the widest range of people, and to increase the number of people using it, I think it would be a mistake to dismiss the ever growing I-tunes, I-Pad crowd who are used to more "sexy" views of their media. (I personally detest I-tunes and wouldn't have it on my system, but that's just me). Anyway you are the final word on the subject, as it should be, and your willingness to even entertain ideas on the matter is a plus, and all my posts are meant only to explore ideas, and should not be taken as some sort of demand (a sly reference to my other thread that was shut down).

As for the ideas mentioned by Rick, I think the Pop up on hover might be the best way to handle such a view, but a re-sizable window where the movies are currently listed might be good enough, or maybe the ability to have a scrollable window for movie data in lower portion of the screen. Of course a compatible and compact template would need to be made to display movie data in either case. The very simplest of ways to have something of a cover view, would be to have a single vertical column of covers where the movies are currently displayed, but  that would be a terribly inefficient way of displaying movies, but there are people who would like this.

Cheers

Offline rick.ca

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #9 on: May 27, 2011, 12:06:42 am »
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It's all a matter of goals...

If you want to make a positive contribution here, I suggest you be more careful (or at least diplomatic) about ascribing goals to others. I'm sure nostra did not mean to imply he's only interested in developing features of interest to him. The program itself is ample demonstration that's not the case. He's just pointing out a simple reality of the situation many seem to lose sight of. He's not going to squander his limited resources on things that do not appeal to large number of users. Understandably, if he has a personal interest in a feature, he's probably more likely to assume others do too. If he doesn't, he needs to see a demonstration of that interest—not just one user's opinion it must be so.

Offline kozzmik

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #10 on: May 27, 2011, 02:08:51 am »
Rick,

Let me suggest you don't overlay my posts with your own simplistic, and wrong, representation of what they mean. You have done this more than once now, and it is irritating. I in no way implied what Nosta's goals were, I simply pointed out that if those goals included maximizing users it might be a good idea to try to include features such as this. I even went out of my way in saying that whatever he should decide is, by definition, the right way to go, but still you managed to read into it. Amazing...

Offline rick.ca

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #11 on: May 27, 2011, 02:39:49 am »
That's the beauty of this mode of communication. The words are there for everyone to see. I stand by mine. I'm sorry you choose to find them irritating, but I find do it difficult to care.

Offline kozzmik

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Re: Cover view?
« Reply #12 on: May 27, 2011, 03:35:56 am »
It's very apparent that you don't care Rick.... in more ways than one.

I'm out