[amasephy]

The changes for iPhone seem relatively minor and unabrasive to me. The only thing I’d maybe prefer to see is related to the play/pause. I think we talked about this way back but you could make the symbol bigger and only have play or pause symbol present based on current playback status. Many other media players behave this way, including Apple Music. This is really me nitpicking though.

As for the shuffle and loop buttons you may want to consider swapping their position. Apple Music, YouTube Music and VLC all have the opposite position for these buttons than the Kodi app does. Perhaps there is some conformity standard for the placement of these buttons that the other apps are adhering to?

For the rest of the buttons the new layout makes a lot more sense to me.

Looks like there are a few other changes not mentioned in release notes. The background color for the buttons is now perfect dark. The background of the now playing area is also black and the Kodi logo is gone when flipping between now playing and the playlist.

Is the black background your permanent design or are you still working on that new color scheme where it adapts to the content playing? Something about the current color scheme seems a bit overly monochromatic and lacking its own Kodi design language character. Maybe it’s the lack of using the signature Kodi blue color?

Either way I’m rambling at this point. Overall I’m happy with the iPhone implementation you have done. 👍🏻

[Buschel]

Thanks for the feedback.

I remember the ask to show Play or Pause depending on the playback state. This can be most likely implemented at a later point in time, for now I am just playing with the layout to see what works well -- or not, like with the iPad.

The swapping of repeat and shuffle can easily be done. Thanks for pointing this out.

The black background really looks a bit too hard. I locally changed this to a dark grey, which now again lets the black kodi logo become visible. I did not work on the colored background yet. Possibly I am making this an option in future.

Screenshot for iPhone: https://ibb.co/yV9cK3C

[amasephy]

The dark gray looks a lot better. I can’t tell how close it is to the VLC color but personally I think VLC nailed the background color. Consider adopting theirs.

I can see you are struggling on the placement of the loop and randomize button placement. They still seem like they’re bolted on as an after thought. Maybe dim them unless they’re active. I don’t really like the way your eye is drawn to them. Just throwing this idea out there though it may rattle other users- maybe it makes more sense to just expose those buttons on the playlist view instead of cramping the now playing controls.

As for the placement of the progress bar and the loop and repeat, I’m thinking I give the mod to the way it is in the current test flight, versus your latest screenshot. My reasoning is from an aesthetic standpoint - the grouping and layout gives the now playing view more of a foundation to rest on. Just my two cents, it does not bother me either way.

[UlfSchmidt]

I just thought that using the controls on iPad even while browsing, e.g. skipping to next song, is some value add. On iPhone this is not possible.

Impression of how this can look like (quick and dirty): https://ibb.co/JCVhkgV

Yeah! 👍
Just also move the remaining controls (remote, volume) in the bottom to the very left and it looks sooooo much better!

[UlfSchmidt]

I can see you are struggling on the placement of the loop and randomize button placement. They still seem like they’re bolted on as an after thought. Maybe dim them unless they’re active. I don’t really like the way your eye is drawn to them. Just throwing this idea out there though it may rattle other users- maybe it makes more sense to just expose those buttons on the playlist view instead of cramping the now playing controls.

I was also thinking in the same direction, repeat and shuffle logically belong (more) to playlists, not to "Now Playing", so why not put these there? But honestly, with the current iPad layout it would be difficult to squeeze them in there somewhere, as the playlist is not a separate screen… and other apps also place theses controls somewhere on the Now Playing display

[Buschel]

Just also move the remaining controls (remote, volume) in the bottom to the very left and it looks sooooo much better!

Of course, I am changing this step wise and not in one shot.

Next problem: the iPad does not support the "playlist toggle" button (right most on iPhone). This leaves an empty space which I need to fill with something else, as otherwise the symmetry is gone and I cannot place PlaPause in the center anymore. I thought of just adding an Info button which also brings up the overlay. Any other idea of what is possibly desired? But please no movie specific button like language change or subtitles -- those should be reserved for the remote.

Screenshot: https://ibb.co/f0v3PGw (the bottom left volume control position is just a quick hack and not final, just to mention )

On the repeat/shuffle: For me this clearly belongs to NowPlaying. This seems to be kind of gold standard for all other players I looked at. If you have more suggestions on where to place them on NpwPlaying, feel free to suggest. I am also just moving them around the see how the usability and look is.

[amasephy]

Honestly if you really want them on the Now Playing screen I liked them inline with the progress bar. I also kind prefer the progress bar to be below the media title. My reasoning is that it keeps all user controls together.

On iPad the placement of loop and randomize looks great imo. Info button seems most logical. You could also consider adding the gear button for settings. If there’s an “add to favorite” api feature maybe create a button for that?

[Buschel]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I also would prefer to have the progress bar at the bottom for the sake of locality of control items. I am just struggling with a simple layout of the labels for song, artist and album in this case. For many use cases only the top most is available, leaving a huge gap between this and the bottom progress bar. For now I am reluctant to add more logic for such cases. When the progress bar is on top, the layout looks natural for only song or for all items being available.

[amasephy]

If you are worried about a huge gap, what about adding the media codec labels? This was something we also talked about earlier. Probably complicates things for you but figured I would mention it again.

If I have some time I might play with the layout in photoshop and see if I can make some mockups. I enjoy just playing with stuff like that.


Here’s a mockup I threw together.

[UlfSchmidt]

Just also move the remaining controls (remote, volume) in the bottom to the very left and it looks sooooo much better!

Of course, I am changing this step wise and not in one shot.

Next problem: the iPad does not support the "playlist toggle" button (right most on iPhone). This leaves an empty space which I need to fill with something else, as otherwise the symmetry is gone and I cannot place PlaPause in the center anymore. I thought of just adding an Info button which also brings up the overlay. Any other idea of what is possibly desired? But please no movie specific button like language change or subtitles -- those should be reserved for the remote.

Screenshot: https://ibb.co/f0v3PGw (the bottom left volume control position is just a quick hack and not final, just to mention )

Things coming to my mind to fill the gap (but most of these only work for music):

• Add to favorites
  
• Share
  
• Show all songs from this artist
  
• Show all albums from this artist
  
• Lyrics
  
• Search for song on YouTube
  
• Search for additional info on Wikipedia
  

[Buschel]

If I have some time I might play with the layout in photoshop and see if I can make some mockups. I enjoy just playing with stuff like that.

Looks great, please continue with playing around a bit with the layout. This maybe gives some more ideas on how to improve this further.

With the "gap" I meant to space between top most text ("This must be ..:") and the progress bar which is unused in case the other two rows are not filled by metadata. The space which you used is only available for square covers (like in your music example). Movie covers use the space where you placed the codec icons. This is one of there problems: I would like to keep the same features / icons for all item and cover types. Pure music players do not need to support that many different types and can focus on the ideal layout for square covers only.

Impression on some use cases: https://ibb.co/3BgxScw

You see how I keep the layout of the bottom field with labels, progress bar and repeat/shuffle same.

[Buschel]

Things coming to my mind to fill the gap (but most of these only work for music):

Thanks for sharing. "Add to favorites" or "Share" could be added as they are independent of the item type which is played.

[amasephy]

Thanks. I had already thought about movies art being the problem. I didn’t have a chance to play with that yet. I’ll make some templates for the various types of media.

May I suggest adopting the gradient background as I used in my mockup? If you look closely I eliminated the background on the top of screen header. Personally I think this is a huge step forward in modernizing the styling.

As a side note, the star I added under the artwork I intended for use as setting a rating. This functionality is at least built into Kodi server, and visible on OSD when playing music at least. Not sure how it works for video media. Whatever button you add to the iPad layout to fill in the gap could be added to this position so both versions have same functionality.

More mockups to come soon.

[Buschel]

Thanks again. Not sure about the gradient, the official version uses something similar and I like the "flat" look of plain color. But let's see how your drafts look like. Will you try to keep the same layout for different media types?
And, yes (!), I am also absolutely a fan of transparent navigation bar. Just need to figure out, if can do the same for the other menus, or if I should only do this for the NowPlaying screen.

[UlfSchmidt]

Did anyone recognize that adding a song to a playlist is no longer working? The current app always adds the whole album instead of the song selected.
Starting a song from „recently added“ is also no longer working, it simply replaces the playlist but no playback at all.