One thing that frustrates me when using Roon is you can only have one context/ view at a time, you’re either in overview, or browsing artists, albums, or playing music etc. It’d be so much nicer to be able to tab views in Roon much like you can tab web content in a browser. Constantly having to pick via a drop down menu (in a touch interface) and navigate backwards and forwards through screens is a real pain in the proverbial.
It also diminishes ability to explore your music. When browsing and deciding what to listen to I often click through credits, performances etc to explore and find other possibilities. If you found something you want to come back to later you have to queue it there and then, commit it to memory or bookmark it because it’s gone as soon as you go elsewhere and retracing your steps through the UI isn’t viable. Being able to leave these ‘windows’ open in different tabs would make for a much better/ richer way of interacting with my music using Roon.
Yeah, whilst some complain the UI is dated in terms of its look and feel (and I can sympathise with that view) I’m more concerned that it doesn’t allow me to interface with my music in the way I’d like to. Sure, I can find and play stuff and navigate like crazy but whatever I get to is transient and has to be consumed in that moment or it’s lost.
Great concept, but considering Roon’s conservative approach to any major UI changes, one I doubt we’d ever see.
Probably what drives most people the craziest is the UI inconsistency across page views. The horizontal/vertical scrolling has been covered, but there’s also the lack of ‘funnels’ or filters - for example, why is there no funnel on the Overview page where it would make the most sense? And favoriting is a mess - for example, why can’t one favorite an album on the Now Playing view (and not just the track)? And navigation is a mess of up, back, and down arrows that can trip up a veteran user let alone a new one.
The ability to lock the main menu open would be great on desktop and tablet (not sure if that work on a phone), as well as rearrange and/or hide the elements in it. Perhaps adding a ‘cart’ or ‘notepad’ element that people could stick items (such as artists and albums) they’re interested in but don’t want to commit to the library or a playlist yet might be an option to tab views.
As many of us have said, Roon should stop dealing with the UI on a micro level and take a long hard look at the software globally.
Personally I’d like to see it disappear altogther and be replaced by a popup menu triggered by a press and hold anywhere that’s not a hotspot for something else in the UI. It needs to become more visual too, the whole construct of the current GUI has the look and feel of legacy apps.
That’s another good approach for sure. But considering how tepid Roon has been in regards to the UI and esp the ability for users to customize it to their own needs, I was just trying to keep the changes relatively simple. And by locking it open, one has that much less clicking to do (even a press and hold is still yet another step). And since so much screen real estate is wasted in the current Roon UI, locking it open wouldn’t take away from anything. But it would be nice if it could be locked open it didn’t look so beginning of the decade.
