[mythtv-users] Re: Re: Cannot set a recording

[Donavan Stanley]

On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 13:41:06 -0400, Michael J. Sherman
<msherman at dsbox.com> wrote:
>  >> Open source software is continually dinged on the lack of usable
>  >> interfaces; why not buck that trend and use standard/simple interface
>  >> styles? If I showed this "new" and "improved" recording options >screen
>  >> to a non-technical person, their head would explode. I guess I could
>  >> explain how the new options screen is not using QT widgets and it's
>  >> themeable, and then I'm sure they would understand.
>  >
>  >
>  >Other than the lack of a visual indicator to show you left/right how
>  >is it prone to make someone's head explode?
> 
> 
> Because you're mixing interface styles; that is why.  A list box should
> be a list of options, and you can choose one.  But now there are
> buttons, submenus, and menu headers mixed into a listbox.  Anyone who
> has taken a class in HCI (human computer interaction) would mock this
> screen all day long.

If this had been designed for use on a computer screen using a mouse
the design would have been a lot different.  The rules are a lot
different when you have arrows and enter as the only keys available
for certain.

Take a look at the UI for other PVR devices such as Tivo.  The
interface is much the same.  In fact, the recording options screen was
modeled after Tivo's.

 
> If I want to record, I should be able to with minimal button presses.
> So I bring up the program grid, hit enter.  Then I should be able to see
> my recording options, and hit enter once again to make it record.

The choice was made that "do not record" should be the starting
recording type.  I don't tend to a gree but that's not my call.


> 
> I would propose a screen that looks like this:
> 
> ------------------------------
> |
> |  Program info stuff goes here
> |
> ------------------------------
> 
> ------------------------------
> | Do not record
> | Record only this showing
> | Record this every week
> | Record this every day
> | Record any time on this channel
> | Record any time
> | Advanced Options ->
> ------------------------------
> 
> That way, I can get in there, hit down once, and hit enter, and boom,
> I'm set to record.  In the Advanced Options selection, it would bring up
> another screen with Scheduling Options, Storage Options, Program
> Details, and List Upcoming Episodes.

So you eat up a huge amount of screen space to display the choices for
one item?

 
> Right now, when I go to the program grid, I hit enter.  My first option
> is "Record this program as shown", but it's greyed out!  I can hit down,
> but then I cannot hit up to get back up to where it came in.  I know, I
> then have to hit left/right on Option #2, but why is this first option
> even there with my selection bar on it when I come in?  As a new user,
> if I hit enter from the program grid, I would want to then select
> "record this program as shown".   The wording suggests that is the
> option I want (I want to record it, after all).  This first option in
> the list box should be a button element on the screen.  You set your
> recording options, then hit this button to set it to record.  The
> "button" should not be listbox option #1.  Also, why is there a [Cancel]
> button when I can hit escape?  Other screens in Myth do not have a
> cancel button.

Have you *seen* any of the settings dialogs?  That's all the recoding
options screen is, a settings dialog.   They do have cancel buttons. 
The [cancel] option is provided as another way to accomplish the same
task as the exit button does.

 
> The way it is now with the left/right, I do not know all my options
> until I scroll through them all.  With what I propose above (which is
> how it used to be), I could see all my options at a glance, which is
> what a listbox widget is supposed to do in the first place.

If you want to see all your options in a list.  Hit select on the
item, which again was covered in the message describing this feature.

 
> If you want to use the left/right style, all I ask is that it not be
> wrapped up into a listbox widget.  That is, I think, what is
> fundamentally broken about this new style.

I personly think you're overstating the problem.  The problem is the
lack of visual indicators to show you that you can move left or right
and that's being fixed.