More and more skins (nearly all of them these days, it seems) are moving the view options for the video and music windows (e.g., "sort by," "view mode," etc) into hidden side menus that require pressing left, right, up, or down, depending on which view mode you're using. This is fine for an experienced user, but even I often have to try a couple different directions before I find the right one. I imagine for a new user it is less that optimal.
Why not add a default built-in window for these settings? This way, these settings could be accessed in a standardized way in all skins and all view modes. If desired, skinners could even add a button linking to it in the video/music windows to make it super obvious for even first time users, and users could customize buttons on their remotes to launch this menu as well.
Additionally, this would eliminate the confusion of trying to leave these hidden menus, especially when a newbie accidentally accesses it. I live in a house of 10 people, only one of which has ever used XBMC before and I recently set up my htpc for them to use - a perfect testing ground to figure out what really is and isn't "user friendly." Multiple times I have been asked for help when one of them entered one of these hidden menus and couldn't figure out how to get out of it when the "back" button didn't work. If the settings were to be moved into their own window, the back button WOULD work. This alone would save some headaches.
In my opinion, this change could considerably improve the user friendliness of xbmc. The back of my mind tells me surely there is something I'm missing here otherwise this already would have been implemented, but in case I'm wrong and in the interest of sharing ideas, here is mine
Why not add a default built-in window for these settings? This way, these settings could be accessed in a standardized way in all skins and all view modes. If desired, skinners could even add a button linking to it in the video/music windows to make it super obvious for even first time users, and users could customize buttons on their remotes to launch this menu as well.
Additionally, this would eliminate the confusion of trying to leave these hidden menus, especially when a newbie accidentally accesses it. I live in a house of 10 people, only one of which has ever used XBMC before and I recently set up my htpc for them to use - a perfect testing ground to figure out what really is and isn't "user friendly." Multiple times I have been asked for help when one of them entered one of these hidden menus and couldn't figure out how to get out of it when the "back" button didn't work. If the settings were to be moved into their own window, the back button WOULD work. This alone would save some headaches.
In my opinion, this change could considerably improve the user friendliness of xbmc. The back of my mind tells me surely there is something I'm missing here otherwise this already would have been implemented, but in case I'm wrong and in the interest of sharing ideas, here is mine
