+1 on vertical. I’ve not yet gotten used to horizontal scrolling.
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The combination of horizontal and vertical scrolling is quite common in magazines, new readers. You scroll horizontally from article to article, vertically while reading one article. It’s quite useful.
In fact, it is so useful that I have been pushing for Roon taking it further. If I have selected a set of albums, based on a tag or a genre or an artist, and I click on one album and get the vertical scroll within the album – this is like an article. In the magazines, I can scroll horizontally to get to the next or previous article, even when I am halfway down the article. I.e. I don’t have to navigate hierarchically, going up to the article list, going to the next article, and then down. I’m reading down, get bored, and flick the page to the next article. Very natural. Shouldn’t Roon permit the same thing?
I think the reason we are all fixated on only downward scrolling (like a medieval monk with a paper scroll!) is because of web browsers. The web took us back 500 years. But having separate functions for vertical and horizontal scrolling is very useful, and very modern and widely adopted - at least until the web browser.
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And just to add a Plus+1 to what Anders write above, I think it’s appropriate to repost something from May 2015…trying to draw a parallel between how we might read a Magazine and how Roon’s layout is designed
I very much agree with Anders’ assessment that the Browser has limited our ways of reading…where for about 500 years now, we scrolled thru a book from left to right…and then read a page from top to bottom
I view Roon’s choice in overall design to be akin to that of a Digital Magazine, where
- You BROWSE from page to page [horizontally]
- You continue to browse to e.g. Page 7…where you see an Article that interests you
- And at that point, you begin to READ from top to bottom [vertically] within that Page
- when finished that article, you then resume Browsing horizontally until you reach another article you like, where again you proceed to read from top to bottom
Likewise with Roon,
- you BROWSE horizontally from Page 1 to e.g. Page 7 of the Album / Artist / Composer Browser, where you see an Album or Artist that interests you…
- Once you enter that Page, you then READ Vertically all the detail on that page
Summary:
-
You BROWSE from left to right [Roon Album / Artist / Composer Browse Screens]
-
You READ from top to bottom [Roon Detail Screens]
@AndersVinberg @Ronnie
Which is all very well & logical when the result of the physical action of page turning or swiping ties-up with your intention, but when the physical action (i.e. mouse scroll) is an instruction to scroll vertically but the screen scrolls horizontally, it is unintuitive & quite disturbing.
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I use a touchpad with my iMac and it is quite natural to scroll right, I understand the mouse scroll issues though.
Russ
True Roland…but it’s also worth looking at it thru the eyes of a Developer…and asking “How many users are going to be using a mouse with a scroll wheel in 2015 and onwards”??
The reality is that most desktops these days are supplied with mice that don’t have scroll wheels…and almost all laptops use Gestures on Trackpads
Or thinking about it from a Use-Case viewpoint…how many users are going to be using a mouse with a scroll wheel at the listening position??..the more likely use case is a Tablet or a Laptop [which came to about 70% versus 27% in a recent Roon UI poll here]
It’s difficult to take into account how all users are going to interact with the UI…but it’s easy to see why Touch and Trackpad gestures would take priority…at least for the moment
@Ronnie
Agree with all you’ve said there (apart from the mouse / scroll-wheel statement) - but there are a reasonable number of people who do sit at a desk & listen - as I’m doing right now ! 
There are quite a lot of Roon users (who seem to be regular posters) with a Headphone rig…Office desk rig…but as you point out - a poll gave a 2/3 to 1/3 result. Statistically significant minority, I’d say ! 
Anyway, yep, it’s up to the Roonies…let’s wait & see… 
I’ll give you “unintuitive” the very first few times it is encountered, but “disturbing”? Personally, I found it very quickly became second nature and never thought about it further. Same with using the scroll wheel to zoom in and out on maps and photos.
One might just as well say that a stick shift is unintuitive and disturbing, but once they’ve learned to drive, I doubt that many people give it a second thought.
The scroll wheel on mouse, here in the office, both rotates and can also be tilted from side to side.
Maybe what Roon should do is:
- Use the mouse’s scroll wheel rotation to scroll the screen vertically.
- Use the mouse’s scroll wheel left/right tilt action to scroll [page] the screen horizontally
Thus eliminating the mouse / screen scrolling orientation misalignment.
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Where the magazine anaolgy falls on its face is that when reading a magazine you have the top and bottom vertical edges in view at all times.
In Roon you have to scroll down to reach the bottom of the page delimiter, but within that there are horizontal scrolling sections to navigate as well.
To make the anaology even vaguely work, try reading a magazine 3 inches from the end of your nose.
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That’s why it’s called an analogy.
There are other differences: no paper cuts, nothing to put in the recycling bin.
I agree about the internal sections that are independently scrollable.
I have argued for some time for a different approach there, for separate reasons but also reinforced by this issue.
My point was, the magazine approach works really, really well on tablets. Far superior to one-directional scrolling.
One example: The Economist magazine app uses one-directional scrolling (horizontally, like a paper magazine). But the Economist 1843 app uses the bidirectional approach. Far superior. (I speculate it’s because setting up the bidirectional mode is more work, and 1843 is a bi-monthly while The Economist itself is weekly.)
Ones getting used to it, I appreciate the horizontal scrolling. However, agreed that an option to choose would be great. However, if I would have to chose between vertical and horizontal I’d like to stick to the current horizontal scrolling.
Best
Sven
I stopped driving a stick shift 15 years ago, and I’m trying to learn left foot braking (because it would give me better control with a modern twin-clutch paddle-shifter), but habits die hard.
Sorry to bring this old feature request back but with the release of Audrivana 3 I have found myself initially drawn to A+ 3 by it’s amazing SQ. I am sick of the bits are bits debate and want to highlight two other features of A+ 3 that have also currently made A+ 3 my go to player.
Firstly how much more natural does vertical scrolling feel on digital devices. Horizontal scrolling feels so 20C paper based. I know the ROON team for some reason are cemented to horizontal but I find it so much easier to scroll through A+ library vertically to find what to play than ROON’s horizontal. I know my wife is reluctant to use ROON because of this.
Secondly, I should put this in another thread, but accessing Qobuz in A+ is a real, well, plus.
Edit, I see the Qobuz thread is closed.
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Well, the OP seem to have adjusted to the horizontal scrolling, but i’d really like an option to scroll vertically.
The analogy with paperback magazines/catalogues doesn’t quite cut it for me. I cant really say why either, but i suppose its about the fixed page header and footer, a bit like this community actually.
I believe it would also make it easier to implement a portrait mode view for iPad (and other tablets ?) which i miss.
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Hi,
it is NOT scrolling. It it paging. It’s not possible to scroll the page column by column. And it is what I really dislike.
Maybe one day…
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Yup, it’s paging - just like turning the pages of a book. And I am perfectly comfortable with it.
But, I hope you don’t think badly of people who are not comfortable with it 
I just can’t get used to it, it feels wrong… especially on an iPad. Maybe if Roon were the only app I used, I would get “comfortable” but Roon is the only app I have ever used with horizontal scrolling (and, as @cas said, it is paging, not scrolling). I am constantly trying to scroll up/down, then saying… “oh yeah” and paging left/right. And the “failed” paging is also annoying…
First world problem? Of course it is… but that doesn’t mean it should go unaddressed in software meant for the first world.
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Vaguely analagous to turning a book’s pages if you’re using a touchscreen. Utterly unlike a book when using a laptop or desktop.
And as I have said before it’s the mix of vertical and horizontal UI that is so poorly resolved.
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