[Ferdi-T]

I recently spoke to some people who tried out XBMC, but were put off because they thought it was rather inaccessible. I remember having the same sentiment when I started (installed it, didn't get it, even installed Boxee instead for some months before giving it another go). Seems like the hardest thing for new people is to get the library up and running and customising it. Granted: tt's easy enough to do when you know what you're doing, but it's getting to that point which is the hardest.

I am under the impression that a seamless installation of ones library would enhance XBMC's popularity. The sooner people will get the 'wow'-feeling seeing all their media displayed, the less likely they are to abandon the system.

Two things would help:

- Adding a wizard during the first instal which helps setting the content for music, movies, video's and pictures?
- Adding a 'library'-section underneath the setting, which combines everything related to finding media, scraping and displaying it (including the options found in different places such as the context-menu, sidebar, video/music-settings et cetera).

Perhaps the above is useful?

[mftvrocks]

agree, most entry users stopped from using xbmc more because of the reason, not because xbmc is not powerful, but too power that they could not handle it easily.

[Ferdi-T]

Well, I believe that it's not the number of options that's the 'problem', but mostly that the way they are presented gets in the way (or requires) navigating media.

When I brought my XBMC into the livingroom I disabled most of the bells and whistles and installed Metropolis as a skin (which doesn't have any moving parts), so that it would be easier for my girlfriend to get grips with it. And it worked, she's able to watch everything she wants.The lesson learned is that XBMC tends to work better when you keep all options locked underneath the hood.

[texaco]

Agree, XBMC should come with a kioskmode so after the inital setup you can hide settings (ie the left panel in video/library view). I also support the idea to incorporate a first time setup to walk the user through setting up the library, configure sound, enabling services like airplay etc).

BUT

a wizard that is too long kills the experience, I have tested other media centers where the inital installer is a nightmare to go through due to too much exposure to settings and options.

[MassIV]

Agree, XBMC should come with a kioskmode so after the inital setup you can hide settings (ie the left panel in video/library view).

Settings > Skin Settings > General/Other > Enable Kiosk mode

[MassIV]

But how should this wizzard look then? What is a good but simple wizzard for a first time user?
If i think about this, i would say give a yes/no popup if you want help, if nothing has been setup yet.
I'll do a suggestion, help me fill in the blanks.


First make a yes/no dialog that pops up on home when no content has been set anywhere, and skin has settings "wizzard enabled".

Code:

<onload condition="Window.Previous(startup) + !Library.HasContent(Movies) + !Library.HasContent(type) + Skin.HasSetting(wizzard.enable)">ActivateWindow(#####)</onload>

Upon no, turn the wizzard off completely in the skin.

Code:

!Skin.HasSetting(wizzard.enable)

Upon yes, open media choice dialogue (Or first the different kinds of setup help).

Code:

ActivateWindow(####)  <- custom

Clicking a media type will take you to the media type page (eg. Videos)
And simultaneously open the add source dialogue (maybe also blink the focus on add source).

Code:

ActivateWindow(Videos,Files)
ActivateWindow(129)  <- add source in my skin

And this will, as usual, open the set content dialog upon completion.

Or was it something else "they" had problems with, setting up?

[texaco]

@MassIV
The default confluence skin that comes with xbmc does not have this option unless it has been enabled in very recent nightly builds, i know there are skins out there with this feature but it should be included out of the box.

If the user have to install a skin in order to use the kiosk functionality you have lost alot of users already there.

[texaco]

But how should this wizzard look then? What is a good but simple wizzard for a first time user?
If i think about this, i would say give a yes/no popup if you want help, if nothing has been setup yet.
I'll do a suggestion, help me fill in the blanks.


First make a yes/no dialog that pops up on home when no content has been set anywhere, and skin has settings "wizzard enabled".

Code:

<onload condition="Window.Previous(startup) + !Library.HasContent(Movies) + !Library.HasContent(type) + Skin.HasSetting(wizzard.enable)">ActivateWindow(#####)</onload>

Upon no, turn the wizzard off completely in the skin.

Code:

!Skin.HasSetting(wizzard.enable)

Upon yes, open media choice dialogue (Or first the different kinds of setup help).

Code:

ActivateWindow(####)  <- custom

Clicking a media type will take you to the media type page (eg. Videos)
And simultaneously open the add source dialogue (maybe also blink the focus on add source).

Code:

ActivateWindow(Videos,Files)
ActivateWindow(129)  <- add source in my skin

And this will, as usual, open the set content dialog upon completion.

Or was it something else "they" had problems with, setting up?

Your suggestion is more a shortcut than a wizard. The wizard should be a standalone window that pops up after the inital install OR something you do during a install. The wizard should take you through a few basic steps in order to configure what is deemed necessary for xbmc to run. Set up library, configure sound+hw acc and select what services you want to run.

A wizard is considered more friendly than a configuration page because it has more focus on explaining to the user in clear text what needs to be decided instead of showing a page full of buttons and checkboxes with very little explanation.

This should not be skin dependent but should be a system core functionality that comes out-of-the-box.

[MassIV]

@MassIV
The default confluence skin that comes with xbmc does not have this option unless it has been enabled in very recent nightly builds, i know there are skins out there with this feature but it should be included out of the box.

If the user have to install a skin in order to use the kiosk functionality you have lost alot of users already there.

No, no, it hasn't been. I thought you were talking in general.
But if you are looking for kiosk mode, you are already so far in menus that you can just as well switch skin.
I mean how would you even know kiosk mode exists, what it does or that you want it? Is it really a first time user worry?
The fact that it isn't in Confluence leads me to believe that it is not considered a basic function.

Not saying that i don't think it should be, because i do think kiosk should be in Confluence.

Your suggestion is more a shortcut than a wizard. The wizard should be a standalone window that pops up after the inital install OR something you do during a install. The wizard should take you through a few basic steps in order to configure what is deemed necessary for xbmc to run. Set up library, configure sound+hw acc and select what services you want to run.

A wizard is considered more friendly than a configuration page because it has more focus on explaining to the user in clear text what needs to be decided instead of showing a page full of buttons and checkboxes with very little explanation.

This should not be skin dependent but should be a system core functionality that comes out-of-the-box.

I suggested it this way because i think skinners might be more willing to implement such a thing then the devs (Although i should not speak for them).
And it is way easier to make. I'll make another suggestion, gimme a sec.

[texaco]

@MassIV
The default confluence skin that comes with xbmc does not have this option unless it has been enabled in very recent nightly builds, i know there are skins out there with this feature but it should be included out of the box.

If the user have to install a skin in order to use the kiosk functionality you have lost alot of users already there.

No, no, it hasn't been. I thought you were talking in general.
But if you are looking for kiosk mode, you are already so far in menus that you can just as well switch skin.
I mean how would you even know kiosk mode exists, what it does or that you want it? Is it really a first time user worry?
The fact that it isn't in Confluence leads me to believe that it is not considered a basic function.

Not saying that i don't think it should be, because i do think kiosk should be in Confluence.

Your suggestion is more a shortcut than a wizard. The wizard should be a standalone window that pops up after the inital install OR something you do during a install. The wizard should take you through a few basic steps in order to configure what is deemed necessary for xbmc to run. Set up library, configure sound+hw acc and select what services you want to run.

A wizard is considered more friendly than a configuration page because it has more focus on explaining to the user in clear text what needs to be decided instead of showing a page full of buttons and checkboxes with very little explanation.

This should not be skin dependent but should be a system core functionality that comes out-of-the-box.

I suggested it this way because i think skinners might be more willing to implement such a thing then the devs (Although i should not speak for them).
And it is way easier to make. I'll make another suggestion, gimme a sec.

Cool

Its a good point you made about kiosk mode but it wasnt mentioned because a new user would switch it on but rather to let an advance user hide menus associated with settings and configuration for i.e the rest of the family.
I myself i have gone to the steps to modify confluence to turn on kisok mode because i often find the views for videos and sound configuration changed because someone in the house got lost in the settings.

Steps in the wizard:

Step 1: welcome screen,
what the wizard will do, and if the user wants to go through the wizard or just begin to use xbmc

Step 2: set up sources movies/tvshows/music
The user can add directories and select if they contain movies/tvshows/music. No mentions of scrapers or sources for fanart etc, this should be the default values.I.e tvshows uses the tvdb scraper.

A checkbox for 'Scan library on startup" should also be present in this step

Step 3: Sound and video
-This step should ask what kind of sound system the user got (2.0, 5.1, 7.1 etc) and connectivity (hdmi/spdif etc)
-a option to turn HW acceleration for videos on or off (this is probably autodetected today?)

Step 4: Services
Ask the user what additional services he/she wants to enable and describe each. I.e Airplay, autodiscovery etc.


As you can see the wizard shouldnt expose all functions related to i.e library sources, but rather let the user pick what is necessary and use presets defined in xbmc. If the user wants advanced configuration they can then use the traditional way of configure XBMC.

[MassIV]

Ok, so my other suggestion would be to basically have a skin that is dedicated to being only for setup.
And upon finishing switch to confluence. I bet that there are some if's and buts to this, so all input welcome.

[texaco]

Actually i think thats a great idea. A skin dedicated as a wizard for setting up after installation. It is important that this wizard is universal and not skin dependent, this solves that problem
Im currently at work but ill gladly contribute some more with inputs about text and options when i have the time.

[Ferdi-T]

Hey, some very nice posts to read!

A wizard could indeed be very user-friendly but shouldn't, as Texaco pointed out, be so complicated that it harms the experience. In my opinion the most important thing a wizard should do is distinguish between what's essential and what's optional.

When setting TV-Series (for example) pointing it towards the media sources is quite important, whereas the additional options such as excluding folders from updates can be pushed 1 step away (or even be left out).

This can be achieved by a setup like:

TV-series
[browse to media source]
Back - Forward - Skip - Extra

Where 'extra' would bring up an extra screen, with the most likely choices defaulted (in my experiences most users will leave options at the default value unless they're 100 percent sure what they are doing).

Oh, and:

I myself i have gone to the steps to modify confluence to turn on kisok mode because i often find the views for videos and sound configuration changed because someone in the house got lost in the settings.

Yeah, I definitely recognize this. A Kiosk-mode which strips away all setting is definitely something I would use.

[MassIV]

Great. But if we are going to do this we can't keep hanging in the suggestions section.
Yesterday, I never did more with a skin then something like change a homepage shortcut.
What i posted so far was photoshop...
So it would be nice if a skinner with experience could help. I'm talking about oversight, git, questions ect. Not the legwork.
From a skin point of view, this is a good project to start with/learn, as it will be "relatively" simple.
We don't have to do the video player and home/sub menu's ect. Just reshape the settings.

First, we need a plan for what settings exactly need to be in there + their commands (or where to find the relevant piece in the skin).
We need to know in what order the pages should be / menu structure.
We need text and explanation (WiKi + rewriting for purpose)
We need the stuff we haven't thought about yet.
How stuff looks will be last on the list i suppose?
And a way to keep track of all this.

A couple of hours in the skin folder paid off. It's a proposal for the home screen layout. And already a functioning home.xml template that we could copy for most of the other pages. But the settings i'm most afraid of are "audio output device" and stuff like that. It's not a yes/no but multiple possibilities with long text like "directsound speakers - speakers (high definition audio bla bla)". That is a whole screen from left to right in text...
So an easier way to make that kind of choice would be useful.

[Ferdi-T]

We need to know in what order the pages should be / menu structure.

I'd be happy to help out with this part in one way or another. I'm not a programmer but through my work I have some experience with presenting information to users.