4 posts were split to a new topic: No “Play Radio” option on some albums
I think you’re asking for additional functionality for how the actions work.
Here’s the existing actions when an album is selected:
Play Album
Play Now
Add to Next
Add to Queue
Start Radio
My guess is that under the covers the actions we see are actually chains of atomic actions:
Play Album == Stop Playing + Clear Queue + Append to Queue + Append Radio to Queue + Start Playing
- Play Now == Stop Playing + Clear Queue + Append to Queue + Append Radio to Queue + Start Playing
- Add to Next == Clear Queue + Append to Queue + Append Radio to Queue
- Add to Queue == Append to Queue + Append Radio to Queue
- Start Radio == Clear Queue + Append Radio to Queue + Start Playing
I think you’re asking for a new action:
Prepend to Queue and Play Now == Stop Playing + Prepend to Queue + Start Playing
and the ability to create custom actions (from all of the atomic actions) for the drop-down list which would be configurable based on a selected track or album. That would be cool and all but there would need to be a lot of validation to prevent invalid actions.
While I strongly agree that some degree of customization is necessary, I think having the menu change in any automated way would confuse more users than it would help.
I’ve been advocating that they let us choose our own default menu option. I just thought of a second idea.
The current menu is biased toward those who mostly Play Now and replace the queue. It could remain the default, and they could add a second menu arrangement, geared toward queue builders, and let us switch between them in Settings.
The (optional) queue builder menu arrangement could be something like:
Add To Queue
- Add Next
- Play Now (Add)
- Play Now (Replace)
- Start Radio
I’m looking for a solution that’s simple for the Roon team to build and support and simple for users to understand that also meets most of the use cases.
In bits and peaces.
Change is good, something new to play.
Liked old way for sure.
Ergonomics - please consider fat finger for the drop down - not pleasurable
Look and Feel - I’m sure you(Roon team) guys are working on it
Will work with this until next change. Not difficult though (except fat finger careful in finding the drop down menu)
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Trouble is, before the latest UI refresh this forum had an incredibly long tread asking for “1 click play”. If a “are you really sure” button is added we are back to 2 click play. The temporary Undo box works for me but it could be bigger and persist for longer.
I was being a smart ass.
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This is a good solution but for simplicity and quickness of use I still prefer having the option to set a default action in prefs/settings, after which the big button always functions acc to the preference, as per iPeng. Then a long-click or smaller secondary button could select the alternate buttons.
Or that nice doggy, even better!
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Fully agree. The old design, even if not as effective as the new one, was an elegant design to choose "play"and very nice to handle on a touchscreen of an Surface Pro. Maybe even more important, the intermediate full page play screen brought some kind of ‘slowness’ maybe also described as a kind of ‘analogue touch’ to the user experience that I highly appreciated. That puts a major distinction between Roon compared to other software on the market. Really sorry that this was ended and I would be very glad if one could have an option to keep the old play interface.
Many thanks, Peter
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… in addition: The design of the new unfolding PLAY UI is from an aethetic point of view disturbing the otherwise very consistent appearance of ROON.
So many people asked for one-touch / one-screen Play button. Now that we got it, nobody wants it? I guess it’s hard to please all.
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How have you come to that conclusion?
I like the new UI changes. Yes, I did mistakenly kill my queue a few times but after I got the hang of it, specially knowing I can get it to work like before by clicking on the track name, I’m off and running.
I agree an update where Play Now doesn’t kill the queue would be a good addition.
Keep up the good work Roon.
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Could you clarify this point a bit further please? Both the dropdown button and the “3 dots” button use popup menus. It is the fact that one uses borders around the menu items and the other does not is what is disturbing?
@anon73739233
Have you used the duplicates option? This will stack and allow you to choose the version for the top of the stack.
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I’m finally getting a chance to use the changes to play. I like it as is well enough, but a couple suggestions:
-
Either make the default behavior configurable in settings or allow it to ‘remember last’, so if I’m building a queue, then “Add to Queue” (or “Add Next”) becomes the default until one of the two remaining options in the drop down are selected and then become the last remembered default.
-
The resource hit might not be worth it, but I feel like some sort of subtle animation that adds a bit of weight to the UI when selecting items would be nice. Something about the new Play Now / Add Next / Add to Queue functionality made this come to mind, but all of the UI selections have a very hard transition.
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OK, after a few days with the changes. I must admit where I was reluctant at first, now I am getting used to it. For my use cases it works.
+1 on the subtle animation. The little things really add up in the overall experience.
And this is slightly off topic but the biggest single enhancement I wish for is a softer transition when you interrupt a playing track to start another. Maybe i’m the only OCD listener who does this but compare to Spotify (one thing that’s very well implemented there) and it’s quite a dramatic difference. The fade is very fast but it makes all the difference.
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The options in the -play now/next/add to que- button are small. To small for my fingers on a 10 inch tablet. So I prefer the extra screen with BIG buttons.
Texts sizes have not grown and stayed small altough there is many unused area on the screen.
Please bigger texts, or at least as option.
(not every user is below 50 years and time will fetsh all the others too!)