Apple’s Frontrow provides for ability to select and play arbitrary video files, usually from the ~/Movies/ directory. I take issue with the file browser user interface.
Given a series of Movies, the interface works quite well. It obvious that this was the experience it was polished for.
However, given a directory with a series of TV Episodes, the browser borders on useless. Especially if the TV show in question has a rather long title. Like Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. This filename cuts off well before the episode number, around 26 characters in. This leaves the displayed list lacking critical information, such as the episode number.
What episode is this? I’m on episode #14.. where’s that? I’ve got 23 episodes in this directory. Sure I can wait ~6 excruciating seconds for the title to scroll by, and then count down the screen to the correct episode. But that’s just bad UX.
There are several solutions to this user experience problem that I can see:
- Reducing the font size, either statically or dynamically, would show more text on the screen at one time, but sacrifice readability overall.
- Rename the files with shorter titles, which would be a pain for organization, but permit easier browsing.
- Replace redundant information with ellipses rather than the trailing information, thus showing what’s unique.
My personal favorite is the third of these, which could yield lines such as “Yamato Nadeshiko Shic … 14.avi”.
2 Comments
also look at all the unused real estate to the left… I would think that is the first place to start.
thanks for keeping me up to date on this subject.
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