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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 349
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 349 |
As a long time (well a couple of years)advocate of an optional new user interface, UI, for BIAB/RB I found this youtube video from a new user of Windows 8 very interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1joDone in a sometimes amusing, sometimes annoying, modern graphic cartoon style, it takes a close look at what makes a computer program's UI a good one or a bad one and why he feels Windows 8 is a very bad one. This interested me for two reasons. If PG were to redesign the BIAB/RB UI, will it be more user friendly? And since I'm considering getting or building a new computer, is Windows 8 as bad as this video indicates? If so, that would narrow my choices of a new computer due to the default install of Windows 8 on most new machines. Would like to urge PG Music to watch the video before redesigning the interface (if they ever plan to) as it does bring up some good general guidelines and potential pitfalls. Also I'd like to hear from any new users of Windows 8 to see if this video makes valid points. Thanks Carkins
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913 |
I am not yet a Win 8 user, but I had a personal one-on-one introduction to it on the 'surface' at a Microsoft demo kiosk at Logan airport about 3 weeks ago.
That particular setup of Win 8 is aimed at the 'gotta be online' on tons of different sites simultaneously, that is demonstrated by some users these days.
My iPhone does this in a relatively graceful way, without a whole bunch of little screens all simultaneously waving their hands for my attention.
There is a more Win7 mode of Win8, which is probably what I will end up using if I ever buy another PC, which looks less and less like the future state for me.
One thing is clear, there are almost no music 'apps' in the Win8 app store. There are all kinds of books on the Win8 store on how to use music apps on other OS (which was very comical to me) but no real apps like the plethora of what's available for iOS.
iOS built in core audio and midi functions (they even call it that) into the OS itself. Low level code. No ASIO needed to be developed by a 3rd party - its in the iOS itself.
Kind of like what some of the Silicon Graphics computers had back in the 90's. They had instructions which took A/D directly to the CPU and directly from the CPU to D/A, without having it having to be buffered in/out of blocks of memory. They were THE choice for audio/video processing because of it for many years. The whole Indigo series.
As to interface design, the main question I would put out there would be:
Does a particular feature really need it's own 'window' to be manually opened and closed? Is there a way for the interface to be context sensitive and eliminate the operation of manual open/close? That's what is brilliant with a few products on the market; and not talking about Apple stuff here. Garageband on iPHone - elegant; less so on Mac OSX. One bad part about the iOS Garageband: you have to shake the device to delete the most recent take. Yes, shake - like an etch-a-sketch!
Think of any 'junk' manipulation process by the user and eliminate them. Unnecessary clicks, scrolls, menu picks, etc. etc.
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Off-Topic
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,129
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,129 |
Quote:
Does a particular feature really need it's own 'window' to be manually opened and closed? Is there a way for the interface to be context sensitive and eliminate the operation of manual open/close? That's what is brilliant with a few products on the market; and not talking about Apple stuff here. Garageband on iPHone - elegant; less so on Mac OSX. One bad part about the iOS Garageband: you have to shake the device to delete the most recent take. Yes, shake - like an etch-a-sketch!
Think of any 'junk' manipulation process by the user and eliminate them. Unnecessary clicks, scrolls, menu picks, etc. etc.
My take - Windows 8 is not as bad as they say, but it is DIFFERENT enough to upset lots of people. It may very well go the route of Vista, and Windows "Blue" will be the more successful launch (e.g. XP to Vista to Win7 will be mirrored by Win 7 to Win 8 to Win Blue). Since the Win8 is such a copy of Apple's model, MS has a lot of growing pains to go through. But they have the deep pockets, persistence, and corporate culture 'copy and kill the competition' model that will eventually allow them to compete with products comparable in quality.
Love your point about built-in support for Audio and Midi - that is critically important for music enthusiasts and their associated 3rd party vendors.
Lastly - I agree entirely that the amount of navigation and clicking can be reduced in BB/RB, and it would make it easier to use the product. Although you refer to Garageband on iPhone, I do feel Apple products nailed it with their user interface (especially the iPad - the navigation I can do with my fingers is often faster than with the mouse - and that was no trivial design task !)
Lastly/lastly - I believe the PG UI guys (? who are these guys ? - they never comment on all these posts) should be closely studying the best of breed UI music technology and general computer application products to the point of going from novice to advanced users. Quite often, the UI which is most efficient to the power user is a cryptic, barrier to entry for the novice. Thus, 2 modes are very important.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
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Season's Greetings!
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season—thanks for being part of our community!
The office will be closed for Christmas Day, but we will be back on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) at 6:00am PST.
Team PG
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