Request for a simplified, alternate, user interface

Good point. I think the original issue was that the interface is too complicated for non-audiophile users who just want to play some familiar music. Perhaps a useful analogy would be with the ATM at my bank. The first screen offers me the ability to do the two things I do most, and a third button to push to get a more complicated interface which lets me do a broader range of banking. Something like that wouldn’t be a terrible add to Roon, especially if display of the “simplified” screen was optional. Two might be too few; perhaps an array of 9 or 12 buttons, with “full interface” taking up one of them.

Make roon more simple, I would like. They should try to make it more user friendly for a greater group.

Actually, I’ve got another idea.

Add a Web server component to the Core, like every other darn thing has these days. It would export a very simple page, which would be divided into N equal rectangles, N to be determined by a slider in “Settings”. Those squares would each be a button, labelled with one of the N most commonly used settings. Someone who wanted simplicity would just visit the Web server’s URL (https://<your Core IP>:<some port>/) and press one of the buttons. Or invoke the button’s URL directly via some other gadget or gizmo.

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I guess this already exists, to export the API.

There’s an extension that produces a rudimentary web page, I’ve not tried it

I don’t think this can be done with an extension – Roon doesn’t provide enough of an API.

Yes, I know. What I meant was that my idea probably couldn’t be done with that extension, as you don’t get enough info from Roon about things like “most used”.

Oh. No. I just presents a simple view.

I hope my comment will not be lost, here down the track!

I am not unhappy with the graphics of the UI. There are certainly other domains, which need the investment.

As a software, Roon is pretty complex. Not an easy task to make it workable. And not an easy task to master it… So it is perhaps not for everyone and certainly not for those, who don’t want to take the time to learn. Alexa is just a fantasy, forget those who just don’t want to do things another way.

This does not mean that Roon cannot change. My difficulty with the Roon interface is that the trigers are so dispersed around the screen that I have to search for the place where I can do what I want to do.

The problem is not so much, that you still have to choose an option once you have clicked on one, it is rather that it is hard to know what kind of option you will find under each trigger. The three points in a way open a contextual menu but I usually don’t find my way at the first attempt… Perhaps I am a bit dumb?

An example of a possible simplification. Credits and Versions could be moved from the vicinity of Tracks to the context menu for the album (the tree dots left to the heart). Bookmarks, filter and search could be shifted left, this would make one more place where you don’t have to look at…

Cover art is nice but it makes it difficult to get an overview, because you have to browse through so many screens (1778 albums at the moment). I would appreciate to have the possibility of calling a plain list, eventually on two columns or with additional metadata.

My greatest frustration is with the lack of structure. On Spotify, I used to store all selected albums as plalists. I could add the playlists to directories and even underdirectories, like the CDs on the shelves. To me, the tags are useless as long as I cannot put them into a sensible structure. Add a New Directory option to the tags screen, allow for underdirectories and for showing the albums for each tag.

Well, I had to adapt my way of choosing the music I listen to. I mainly listen to music I am adding to the collection or I pick a screen in the chaos of albums and select an album matching my present mood!

Which is not bad, thanks

Reto

This, so much this. The three dots for each song, the album three dots close to the top, the bookmark on the very top, the arrow to display the full text in the middle… Focus on Similar is close to the top, but going to same genres/moods is in the middle. Volume and system output are slightly hidden in the lower right, but why is the queue button also there? If you like at least one track, a “play favorites” appears weirdly in the middle; if you dislike a track, nothing appears, but it’ll be ignored if you press the big play button in the top. It’s all over the place, and highly illogical.

IT is my degree, if not my job, so I’ve always been confortable with all kinds of weird interfaces. Roon consistently defeats me with small things. I keep trying to click on the artist’s name at the bottom, but that one is not a link, I have to go to the top. When I want to play just the one song, I keep trying to right-click on the song line, because 90% of the software out there gives you the additional options through a right click. When I want to select several songs, I always try to click left first, thinking I’ll then go shift-click or control-click to get the others.

I wouldn’t mind saying “it’s just me”, but I see too many threads about Roon’s UI on this forum to think that’s the case. Don’t get me wrong, I always manage to end up doing what I wanted to with Roon, but it takes me a couple of tries more often than not.

Just FYI you can tag a tag which helps a little.

Funny stuff…
The tagged tag is not subsumed under the supra-tag, both stay on the same level.
There is no herarchical representation of the structure.
I have no use of the pictures (or placeholders) when looking at the tags.
Thank you for the tip anyway!

The images change to indicate the type of object tagged. Album, Tracks, Artist, Composition, Genre all have a different picture representation when tagged so you can tell quickly what each object is. I have a tag which contains spans all the above categories, the pictures help.

It is not supposed to be. However, you can setup the supra-tag and then, bookmark it. And use bookmarks as the listing you go through to get to the “top-level”. I have, for example, a “Top Level” tag as Mozart, under that I have Opera, Symphonies, Compositions, etc. So, I don’t go to tags and see that they are all the “same level”; I go to Bookmarks, select Mozart and am presented with just the sub-tags of Opera, Symphonies, etc etc.

Now just out of curiosity @Rugby: is this for real or do you want to know if our other legs have bells on?

Who does something like that and accepts that as a normal way to go about things?

And people wonder why I use search as my main navigation tool in Roon…

Sheesh :pleading_face: No wonder everyone’s griping about the UI.

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I was adding on to the conversation someone previously posted about nesting tags, or as someone said tag o’ tags; and giving a presentation option to Reto’s complaint about being at the same level, i.e. a bookmark.

But, yes, I do have one composer completely setup that way. I did it to experiment with how many levels of Tags can be nested and how it can be presented.

And, actually the end result is pretty nice; and convenient. However, it’s not something I’d planning to do for the rest of the library.

I was not aware of that, since I am not using tags. Now you said that… I cannot imagine myself tagging various objects just to find them all in the same bucket.

The user must be able to look separately at the various types of tagged objects.

As a matter of fact, my proposal was not to replace the artwork view you like with a plain textual list; I see it as an option. The software can only get complexer to fullfill new need. Hence the necessity of simplifying the presentation of the resources and options.

Very clever. I am myself used to workarounds.

But this is only a warkaround. As such it points to a weekness of the software. So I don’t take it as a possible solution to the herarchical organisation of assets but as one additional argument to work seriously on that matter.

Thank you Rugby.

Thiis forum works nicely as a support forum, where solutions (in our case mostly workarounds) are proposed to solve problems. But we speak here of Feature Requests. Every workaraound weakens the proposed enhancements instead of taking it seriously and strengthening the demands. We don’t have here the appropriate dynamics.

My expectation is that the moderator makes shure that the well formulated and concrete observations like those of Albert-Philip_Burger reach the development team. If you need additional information to do so, please ask.

I am quite new to Roon and in many respects think the UI is very good. I always use the iPad as my remote. However, i do find the UI to be far too “busy” for me, and when I switch back to Linn Kazoo I find myself relaxing (except for when I need a Play from here button, which bafflingly is still missing in Kazoo).

I would like more control of the configuration of which UI elements are presented, as some of these just get in my way when I use Roon. Eg I have no interest in concert information or engaging in any way with social media and would like to have the option of removing UI clutter. One person’s clutter is another person’s essential feature, hence options for this would be nice to have.

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