PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist The GUI again....

Like many, I do think the GUI needs a total (pray 64 bit) rethink.

yes there is a case for fixing essentials first, but my mind is on the 64 bit version which is hopefully on the horizon sometime.

What follows are constructive suggestions as to some specifics:

I find the whole GUI too cluttered and I think that we should apply Occam's razor. There is some room for having the same function appear in two places, but overall there is far too much of this - leading to a cluttered interface.

Everyone uses BIAB differently, and at present we all find ourselves looking at stuff we never use. Therefore the GUI should be customisable.

Firstly the Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is far too cluttered. I counted all the entries by hand, I made it 263 items, 459 entries in total, including all the sub-menus. This is far too much. There is a lot of redundancy, and some very confusing naming. There is significant scope for editing and rationalisation.

Let me take an example - the Help menu.

This has 21 main list items, 17 sub menu items, and 27 additional, written "tutorials" .

Imagine you are a new fairly naive, user, and you are looking for help, your stuck, you want to do something....

You go to the Help Menu....

There are 8 scattered list items for the Traditional "Windows" Help text screens

There are three items related to the Program Manual

There is a very curious "Update/Add on and other product information" button that brings up the address and contact details of PG. (?)

A very old school "tip of the day" option.

A "what add ons do I have?" button that has somehow duplicated itself from the Opt menu.

Some weird and indecipherable log screen page - for coders

Some curious Web Links including:

The curious "Guestbook" Weblink which just takes you to the forum (as does the next list item - why? Why not simply nothing at all?

Strangely, there seems to be two copies of "Activate Band in a Box, serial number required" both adjacent to each other? They could be more simply labelled "Activate".


The "WriteBandinaBox request file" (?could be labelled "write request file") Is very strange indeed, it simply brings up a Message stating "C:\BB\BandInABox_Request-bb2015.bin saaved to disk. Email to support@pgmusic

At first I though this meant that you could write a 'request file' - meaning "Dear PG can you help me with this matter..." but its not a request file really its a bin file. Something different entirely, and it takes me to directories users ought not to be in. I think I uderstand it's raison d'etre, but from a users perspective, there could be better methods, ideally simply send the data automatically. Someewaht aside, Has PG considered an opt in function "send usage stats to PG?" this could give accruate information about how the product is used.

What's Missing from the help menu?
Well, in my opinion the most helpful thing of all - the wonderful excellent help videos and utube site. You would have to get real lucky as a novice to find your way to these.

Dockeable windows

I am very familar with a program called Paint Shop Pro 6. Its an old app, (I have seen it as a freebie), but it does feature dockable windows.
My view is that this would be very advbantageous for BIAB. Briefly similar functions get their own window, that can be hidden or revealed and they can slip inot fixed locations on the GUI like Lego, though 'magnetic' borders.
If the whole GUI were customisable in this way, (it was partially before) we could all hide the parts we don't need, leading more room for the chord sheet window.

The same with the standard icons. Its common practice in a modern gui to make these customisable. I have never used the Audio Chord Wizard, the Generate #Title or the UserTracks button, but I have to have them on view, In fact I would say that 70% of the GUI I never use - never.

Transport Bar

I see no need for these to be duplicated in these buttons in the Play Menu, however I could see a case for a 'transport bar', which would include (and possibly exclude) such functions as play and record, but also loop functions, step functions, tempo, key, start end choruses. Yes I am thinking of Cubase's transport bar, but it would be able to perfom BIAB specific functions. This window would have to have an always on top feature, and could be dockable too.
Currently looping is difficult to keep under control when practicing, its fiddly. Perhaps loops could be 'pinned' so gthat they do not loose focus so easily

The mixer

My view is this should be a dockable window, with respect, I still feel the patch window is redundant, if it is expandable. There is a lot of scope to redesign the mixer. It could sure look a lot sexier! It could have the facility to insert VST'S and bring up their GUI's and settings. With a rethink and a show hide/approach it could be customisable by the viewer so they can see all they need, and only what they need in one shot. There are many ways to go on this. One could use an "inspector" approach, like Cubase.

The chord sheet view

The colours in this view behave irrationally when a larger loop is playing.

It would be good to add a post it note to any chord - many uses. This could be done using the technology of hover over buttons that only become visible when hovered over. This way the chord sheet remains uncluttered. It would be good to be able to label sections "intro" "second chorus" or what we want. This could be show or hideable.It would be good to be able to colour the background of different sections, so that e.g. the eye can go straight to the bridge of a song.

Like many users, I occasionally look at an exotic chord and go "UGHH!" what is that!???

If the chord builder dialogue was to feature a keyboard/fretboard showing the actual voicing for a particular chord (where available), and perhaps alternative voicings, the user could learn a lot. Presently, the chord builder names the chords but does not explain them, nor can you see them in an instrument view.

It's an excellent innovation that BIAB now features access to tutorial videos via the lower rhs icon.

I feel that these sort of steps would help experienced users customise the GUI to what they need, minimise clutter, and help new users take an intuitive grasp of the GUI. I think it would help users learn.

All 64bit!

Po

Z

ZeroZero

Yes to the Help Menu; I've said this a few times, it need to be updated. I try not to use the Help as it very confusing. You're looking for a specific item and 50 items show up. Gee which one do I need / want?

No to 64 bit; as this time I'm not interested.

00, you make some good points and have obviously taken a lot of time to prepare your post. Thank you for that.

My endorsements

1: The GUI - yes, sadly, with the best possible intention of the program producers, it looks like a cartoon. The developers should really look strongly at the latest Sonar software for some excellent ideas about how to deliver this...

2: The Help - The Help function is incredibly well put together, however, when searching for something in help, I am amazed at how often something like "Version 7 New features" or "Version 2004 New features" is listed in the results. These are clearly no longer "New Features" and the topic search item should simply just have its own objective results information.

3: And yes, the duplicate 'Activate" message has always been a puzzlement to me. I have asked myself "Why?" many times