Amarok - Too many clicks

Amarok

I have been using Amarok for three weeks, and my conclusion is that Amarok's interface require too many clicks for everyday use. Picking out, and listening to a song takes five clicks if it is not in the playlist. Compared to Banshee, and other music players that requires only two Amarok is not doing so well.

Given the Collection browser is selected: Select Artist > Select Album > Select Song > Play (Double Click) is the workflow required in Amarok to add a single song to the playlist, and play it.

Amarok's expanding folder interface works, but there is too many clicks required in the process, and it takes too long to change tune.

It is not easy to hit the tiny expanding marks in the first place! The tiny triangles next to the artist- or album name that expand the selection into a well known folder tree are way too small. They are so small they should be considered an accessibility issue.

Other issues: Whitespaces and search

The main window in Amarok s filled with controllers, information, or some kind of indicator, or option. There is very little whitespace, and the interface feels cluttered.

It is not possible to add text labels next to the menu icons either. Something that is annoying, and confusing for first-time users that are unfamiliar with the application, and what the different controls and buttons do.

It is also confusing that Amarok features two separate search fields. One for the entire music collection, and one for the current playlist. When the interface is as packed as it is, having two separate search fields seams unnecessarily, and it does not seam to be well though trough at all.

No other KDE application has this approach to search, and most offer text labels. Amorok is is not coherent with the rest of KDE, which makes it confusing, and harder to get use to. I do like Amarok, and thinks it is a good player. But I do find some of the solutions to bee unnecessarily difficult, and much could be solved more easily.

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2 comments

Personally I still use XMMS, and I have not found a good replacement yet. I know, I'm living in the past, but if it ain't broken why fix it?

Comment by Kent Vegard Evjen at 2007-03-10 @742.

Kent: I guess you do not listen to many Podcasts, or have a portable music player? Amarok, and Banshee automates most of those processes for me.

I especially like Amarok's abilities to recommend tracks. It works really good.

Comment by Daniel Aleksandersen at 2007-03-10 @950.

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