Songpocket @songpocket@indieapps.space

And one with freakishly long song titles.

I try to break my UI by revisiting certain albums. Here’s one with non-square artwork.

wait, a Luxo lamp

with cute Pixar proportions

i need this here now

D. Also, I’m misusing “greyed out” to indicate “selected” rather than “unavailable”.

They’re subtly different: both are “disallowed”, but “unavailable” implies “this wouldn’t make sense”, while “selected” implies “you’re already using this”.

So why am I doing this? Because UIMenu can only show checkmarks on full-width buttons, and I prioritized horizontal muscle memory over logical idealism.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uimenu/options

C. But yes, that means sometimes you tap “repeat” to open Settings, which I admit is nonsensical.

Uh… Apple started it! 🙃 You tap “person” to zoom

(These tabs are modes too.)

It’s ugly but it’s crucial, because Repeat is “modal”—like, in the Larry Tesler sense: you need to know the system’s status in order to use it correctly.

If Repeat were on but it weren’t obvious, the player could seem broken.

“Indicate modes clearly” should be a general order in UI design.

In most drawing apps, your selected tool is modal, and the UI makes that obvious by changing your pointer.

B. Selecting Repeat All or One makes the UI ugly. Sorry not sorry.

It’s like how Apple Photos fills this button blue when Personal or Shared Library mode is on.

Oh yeah, some notes about the Repeat controls I added recently!

A. I like how it lets you set a mode without knowing the current mode.

Most music apps use one button that cycles through Off, All, and One.

No clue why. We have space for—gasp—three buttons.

This is simpler to use. Try it!

Sure, centering looked prettier—trust me, I experimented!

But that’s the danger of designing for screenshots. In actual use, it was less practical.

I think @marcoarment discussed how artwork grids look nice, but they force your eyes to zigzag constantly, so that’s why @overcastfm uses a straight list.

Same idea.

However, I’ve since re-redesigned this, left-justifying it and using 3 rows, not 2. Why?

Because centered text was making me stupid.

I rarely actually read it, because it started in a different place for each album. Eyeballs are lazy.

For v1.11, I’m redesigning album info headers. Here’s …

1. Before
2. Work in progress
3. Apple Music (for reference)

Note how the album artist is bolder than the release date, though both grey.

It visually indicates that it’s more important, whereas in Apple Music, “Electronic · 2014 · Lossless” all blends together because it’s one weight.

New Easter egg in my next version.