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MB Plus Possible New Layout - Feedback Please


ebr

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MB Plus'ers please chime in...

 

I'm thinking about changing the home screen layout to this:

 

53cbf180d44d6_mbpnewlayout1.png

 

A little "fresher" and, while most of the tiles are smaller, it allows you to get more items available in a smaller space without too much overload - I think.

 

Also makes it easy to show 9 tiles in the same space that only 6 showed before - even with the one large tile.

 

53cbf1e6ae880_mbpnewlayout2.png

 

There are still a few technical issues I'd have to work out but this layout is growing on me so please let me know what you think.

 

Love it?  Hate it?  Don't care...?

 

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danielk2005

It looks good, but please keep the recently introduced ability to click straight through to the main library by clicking on the subcategory heading (movies, tv etc...)

 

Thanks

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I like the look of it. I think I'll pick it up tomorrow and give the current version a go.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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legallink

I'm confused by the two screens...is the recommendations only with respect to TV series, and not movies?  I personally don't use the home screen much....but perhaps I would with the 9 tiles....much better than the 6....but you may want to always have a suggestions tab somewhere to make MBPlus shine.

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I'm confused by the two screens...is the recommendations only with respect to TV series, and not movies?  I personally don't use the home screen much....but perhaps I would with the 9 tiles....much better than the 6....but you may want to always have a suggestions tab somewhere to make MBPlus shine.

 

That's just my particular setup.  My "Suggested" movies are further to the right as I've set it up to show resume and Latest first.

 

MB Plus is completely customizable.  You tell it which groups to show you for each category and in what order.  You can also tell it how many tiles to show you in the suggested and latest groups.  See the link I posted earlier for a complete description of how to set it up.

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It looks good, but please keep the recently introduced ability to click straight through to the main library by clicking on the subcategory heading (movies, tv etc...)

 

Thanks

 

That won't change.

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@@swhitmore - you were the original designer here.  Very interested in your thoughts even if you don't use MB Plus anymore...

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I just put up a dev version with this new layout (1.0.1.1).  I think it is pretty stable but I made a lot of changes so it won't surprise me if there are issues.

 

I'd appreciate it if some of you guys would try it out and give real world feedback.  I've grown to like it a lot.

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swhitmore

@@swhitmore - you were the original designer here.  Very interested in your thoughts even if you don't use MB Plus anymore...

 

Thanks. I'll have a look now. Sadly I don't really use classic anymore, in favor of MBT (I do miss it though!)

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swhitmore

I like it. Reminds me a lot of MBT (which I also like). The only thing that jumps out at me is the text below each tile. I'm not a huge fan of the gray gradient background and the size of it. It also seems like the large tiles have the text below and the small tiles have it on top. I'd do one or the other.

f you want the text on top of the tile, I'd go for something below (ignore the size of the text, just an example of the opaque background of the text. Otherwise just have the text below with no background fill.

 

7X7cTo2.jpg

 

Also the size of the clock is... well.. HUGE :P I think it takes too much away from the main header. I'd make it a lot smaller.

Edited by swhitmore
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seanbuff

I like the look of it, very similar to MBT with the one big tile surrounded by smaller ones. Nice.

 

I'll look at trying out the new Dev release this evening if possible.

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Also the size of the clock is... well.. HUGE :P I think it takes too much away from the main header. I'd make it a lot smaller.

 

LOL - that is from your original design and I've actually grown quite fond of it :).  Although, I did reduce the size of both it and the Categories in this latest round (not depicted in the pics above) to give them less weight vs. the real content.

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As for the text overlay, I am actually already doing what you suggested for the title.  It is placed on the poster (for the most part) with a translucent underlay.  That works fine for that because it is bold.

 

The sub-text, however (the added or played date or number of items) I want to be less bold than the title because it is, well, sub-text.  And, when I do that it is easily lost on the background making it hard to read (kind of like the headers in your example - they are almost unreadable).  Therefore, there is a bar underneath the image to give a clear area for that text.

 

I can try making it darker so it doesn't look so "gray" but, in the past when I tried that, it made the overall tile lose its definition against the background (which is already black).  I'll try darkening it a bit and see what people think.

 

The reason the larger tile text doesn't overlay as much as the smaller one does is a matter of math.  The large tile has to be exactly twice as big on both dimensions.  The text, however, is not any larger.  With everything else staying exactly proportional, this means the text area under the image is twice as big in the larger version.

 

I can try maybe over sizing the image in the larger version so this doesn't happen.

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Cheesegeezer

How did i miss this thread.... Loving the updates!!

 

it's almost like Xbox360 layout which is extremely nice to navigate around.  Clock is waaaaaay to big.  I would show more of the menu items ontop too

 

Here is just to show you how close you are to 360 home page. Might give you some inspiration... who know ;)

 

original.jpg

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I don't want to completely mimic the Xbone but these designs grew out of the same origin.

 

As for the bar colors - perhaps if I darken them a bit and then also throw some texture behind the whole thing...

 

53ce6a23c8130_mbpehstexture.png

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MrWebsmith

my only niggle with the new awesome intereface is where the text sits now on the larger tile vs the smaller ones... you had to make the a/r different i assume on the big tile so now i keep wanting that title to no sit on the "top edge" of the grey block below it... see how the smaller tiles have the title over the lighter gradient area and over the series' backdrop..whereas masters of sex is right on that line...

 

but.. all that being said.. if you move the title/text down then it wont align with rectify next to it.. so i dunno how that gets solved... in short.. im 100% positive ill get used to it and not see it anymore by week's end ;)

 

nice work again ebr

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Yeah, web - that's what swhitmore was pointing out.  I explained above that it is due to the fact that the overall tile is twice as big on both dimensions but the text is the same size.  Therefore, the area for the sub text is twice as tall for the same amount/size of text.

 

Anyway, the only way to fix it is to distort the larger image somehow so that it reaches down further.  So far, I haven't found a technique that I'm happy with that doesn't cause problems in other areas.

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Koleckai Silvestri

Looks like Media Browser Theater. Not a fan of the charcoal gradients underneath the images. Would prefer the text overlayed on the image itself. Any plans for additional client support?

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Cheesegeezer

Okay, all you clock-haters... better? ;)

 

 

53ce7b8e55a06_mbpsmallclock.png

 

 

poppin1.gif

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