Unhandiness.
Buttons are too small and less visible. Furthermore, not sure if because of this, many times they happen to be unresponsive to my not so big fingers. Finally there is a principle of density of information (not to be confused with information crowding) which means that most information should be accessible at a glance through color coding, icons, placement of items, balance of positive vs. negative space…
1.7 was doing a far greater job at this. It was one of its distinctive features which set it apart from the crowd of Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz… while it seems to me that Roon 1.8 is becoming mainstream and following the crowd.
Inconsistency.
This is my biggest struggle with 1.8 because I think this is a major setback. I’m not suggesting that all what follows was already in place in 1.7 but generally it was.
When I click on a link now I have the impression to be directed to something that does not resonate with my expectations (and I did not have this feeling before).
My general expectation is that when I click on something, the action links exactly to that something:
a set of tracks if it is a set of tracks (1 track being the trivial case)
an artist if it is an artist
all artists playing a certain instrument if the instrument is being displayed as the property of an artist
All albums containing a certain instruments if the instrument is being displayed as the property of an album
More in general, I expect to see the general context containing the property being referenced within the specific case
When I’m directed to any given view, I expect to be able to change context (e.g. if I see all artists part of Afro Jazz, I want to be able to switch to any other context containing the same criteria, e.g. switch to track view i.e. all Afro Jazz tracks or switch to album view, i.e. all Afro Jazz albums)
Within a given context, I want to be able to sort for any of its applicable properties (ratings, date, playcount, popularity, date added, bitrate, last played… and being able to customize in settings what criteria to make available as not each of us appreciate the same)
None of the above is new features. All of the above is reshaping what is already available to what I personally consider a more logical behavior, to many extents closer to 1.7.
Some of the above already happens in 1.8, not all of the above was in 1.7 although I’m under the impression that 1.7 had much more of it.
My plea of consistency for 1.8 is about ensuring that all bullets above always happen throughout Roon, across the board.
Hope you can take this into consideration because I liked Roon and I struggle with the notion of a “change for the worse”.
I have completely opposite feelings, for me 1.8 is definitely better than 1.7 and it always does exactly what I want and expect from it.
I planned not to renew my subscription, but since version 1.8 came out, I decided to stay with Roon for a long time.
I think to a fair extend the optical elements of the UI have changed fo the better, but agree, its not perfect in terms of “what action triggers what result”
In particular the desire for a more consistant “contextual behaviour” of Play has been brought up quite a few times. I fully agree that the current state of Play (pun intended…) is anything but consistent.
Example - and this follows on from the points I believe you are making above (correct me, if not):
If I press the big Play button next to the cover, I’d expect the full album to play - which it does.
if I press the play icon next to a single track, just that track should play. But it does’nt: That track plays, and any track that followed from there until the end of that album.
If I press the composition made up of a few tracks, I’d expect that composition (ie the tracks that make up the compostion) to play. But again, thats not what happens. It starts playing that composition and carries on playing anything that follows to the end of the Album.
If I select two tracks and press “Play now” - then it works again and plays those two tracks!
You could extend that logic - just as you suggest - to artist, instrument etc. But its getting a bit more tricky there. But getting those Play basics right, would already help, imho.
Yes indeed. And my point is not only on the behavior of Play but more in general the consistency with the context which also includes what queries return as an output.
Thank you very much, learned something new! That works now. And even better: it actually also works as well at a composition level with that setting adjusted.
NB: I dont think this is well known (but very well hidden in the settings-submenus…). Maybe worth considering making this the default behaviour.
There are things in Roon that might be difficult to find/understand, but this? “Play settings” has a top-level entry in Settings. This one seemed pretty obvious to me, but it could be improved by adding in the description that there is a default setting, too. Still I would have expected anyone, who is motivated to change it, to look there. UIs are difficult
I went thru all of the „Play Actions“ when I set Roon up and switched many of them off - and there are quite a number of them. But under „Tracks in Album“ I missed out switching off „Play from here“ - which makes all the difference.
Totally agree, I could not have said it any better than this. I mainly refer to the information density as overview. What information is available in first glance, in one look on one screen and static in nature. This is indeed, NOT to be confused with information crowding, two totally different things. Roon is just following the crowd with a UI with 60% blank space. Most streaming apps are horrible, Roon used to go a different direction but now it’s heading to just become more of the same.
). Maybe worth considering making this the default behaviour.
