Great with the 1.2 release, and particularly the iPhone app - I am a new customer to Roon and I look forward to trying it out.
One thing I simply don’t understand is why I have to press ‘Play’ twice to start the music. This is also the case in 1.2. Example, when I find an album, and press ‘Play the Album’ - I then get a huge pop-up on the screen, where I have to press ‘Play’ one more time. I don’t understand why you have to do this, and it is really not very convenient.
Where would you put the other options that appear when you press play? Personally I don’t mind it, as half the time I want to add the track to a queue or wait until the currently playing track is finished anyway.
I guess I need to spend some more time with Roon, maybe you get used to it, not sure
It might take some time to get used to it. I have been using Roon for about 9 months, but still, I think this is the most annoying feature in Roon. Otherwise Roon is great 
This feature has already been discussed over here: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/one-click-play-please/2100
It’s funny, but when I use other apps now, I miss the versatility Roon provides with this “double play” system. Love the way it allows me to structure the play queue.
A better UI (in my opinion) would be a button/dropdown combo, where clicking the the main part of the button plays immediately and clicking the down arrow part shows the other options as a dropdown:
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| Play | V |
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I realise this may not play well with touch devices.
That’s a great idea Chris. I had suggested putting all the options on a right click and letting the user select which one left click activates, but I like your idea better. Pawmasher (the options screen) is only attractive because it provides options, not because it is fun of itself.
How about long pressing the play button to immediately play the album instead of pulling up the other overlay to choose exactly what you want to do?
Short tap (left click) / long tap (right click) on the Play Album button, might just work … I quite like that idea.
While this proposed solution might deal with ALBUM replay options… It doesn’t really deal with adding individual TRACKS to the queue
Adding Icons such as the above to EACH track in an Album listing wouldn’t be very practical and would make the UI look cluttered IMHO
IMHO, the options for Play Now; Play Next ; Add to Queue etc, etc need to be presented to the User in a CONSISTENT way for both Albums, Tracks and Works… And in addition, it needs to be consistent when using a Mouse as well as Touch
The question then becomes What is the Best Way to get There?
The current way?.. Right Click to Options?.. Long Press??.. Some amalgamation of the above?
Personally, I think Roon’s reasoning for presenting the “Add to Queue” options is more than sound …the question becomes how to get those options presented consistently on 5", 10" and 21" displays using Touch or Mouse
An excellent point well made, Ronnie - UI consistency is paramount. I think the Roon team have made some excellent design decisions, and - taking your point into consideration, this is one of them.
I appreciate all the comments, which gives me the impression that I am not the only one who has been wondering if Roon could improve this aspect of the user interface.
In addition to Roon I occasionally use Spotify from time to time, mostly to listen to new records I have not purchased yet - and to be honest I find Spotify’s instant play interface much more logical.
Perhaps Roon should just copy this part of Spotify’s UI ?
The second play key gives you (when applicable) the secondary screen with the option of play now, play next, or add to queue.
I dislike long press. It breaks the flow. Makes me concentrate on the user interface instead of what I am doing. And no discoverability.
Right click also has no discoverability, and requires a high level of mouse dexterity, first right click and then left click on the menu – seems easy for us geeks, but I have seen people struggle with this. And the menu next to the button – all this dates back to the user interface paradigms introduced with Windows 95. Which was conceived and designed in 1992. Do you remember 1992?
Ok, I just criticize, offer no solutions. I just want to remind everybody that we have raised the bar high. If you want to see an exemplar of a great Windows 95-school user interface, look to JRiver Media Center. We don’t want to go there.
Just add my vote/opinion to leave it as it is.
It is something you get used to, just like I was used to the play button in other players before roon.
The way it is now makes the most sense with the options roon provides. Spotify has no radio option as an example, so you would have to move this somewhere else in roon. Other players, like BLS you need to specify the play button behaviour upfront as a setting, also not ideal depending on the situation. Context menus on a touchscreen, doesn’t this actually introduce also two or potentially even more “clicks”?
I just like the way it is. In fact i love it. I like the preferences -> PLAY Quing Add next Radio … Love it …
My Vote is for No Change. Initially i did not like it coming in from many others before my Roon. But its not the getting used to it for me, I figured I love it Roon way. PLEASE PLEASE donot change.
in case you want it …
Short press - NO CHANGE
Long Press - Play immediately … whatever.
Quite. I ran screaming from the room the first time I tried JRiver. I never want to see that sort of mess again.