SongKong Jaikoz

SongKong and Jaikoz Music Tagger Community Forum

SongKong User Interface Improvements

#1

Hi, Paul. It is clear from your posts that you are truly interested in what we have to say. Thanks!

I agree with others that the UI could be improved, and would offer the suggestions below. I hope this helps!

Dave

  • Program should start in maximized mode (not minimized)
  • Program should start with the “Fix Songs” screen displayed
  • Please make the button icons more intuitive.
    • Report icon is ok
    • Fix songs icon could be, for example, a greyed CD with a green check mark over it
    • Instead of a green radar, perhaps the monitor icon should be an eye on a folder, or a magnifying glass on a folder (although the latter might be confused with search)
    • For the delete duplicates icon, I see that you have two music notes, but I think you need to separate them visually so they don’t overlap; place the two identical notes side-by-side, and then put an X on the note to the right
    • The floppy disk icon behind the reverse arrow should be grey (it’s hard to see the reverse arrow)
    • Edit icon is ok
  • Use minimal text where possible, if a given function is obvious
    • Change “current profile” label to just “Profile”
    • Change “select folder” label to just “Folder”. Instead of using a “select folder” button, create a button at the end of the text box that is just a visual image of a folder that people can click on.
  • Move “Update License” to the Help menu
  • Check all of your tooltips and make sure that all of the text in your tooltip actually displays on the screen when you hover over an item with your mouse. About half of the time when I see a tooltip the text cuts off unexpectedly.
  • Add another section to the menu entitled “Configure,” and move the following items from the “File” menu into this “Configure” menu
    • “Start Remote Mode”
    • “Empty Database”
    • “Preferences”
  • Choosing the Configure menu option should just open a tab containing all of the above options on a single page
    • Eliminate “Song Kong Wizard” from the “File” menu and simply add a check box to the Configure page that says “Optimize preferences for iTunes”
  • Basic tab
    • Put the “Current Profile” and “Select Folder” text box that appears when you open the program , at the top of this “Basic” tab
    • Change “Preview only” to “Preview changes only”
    • Change to “Ignore songs that could not previously be matched”
    • Change to the following (noting indentations)
      • Update
        • Artwork
        • Genres
        • Acoustic attributes (mood, BPM, etc.)(Pro or Melco License only)
      • Perform match if
        • All tracks in album are matched
        • All songs in grouping match to one album
  • Match tab. Please consider changing as follows (I am basing this on info in your help file):
    • Search for MusicBrainz match (default)
      • Supplement with Discogs when MusicBrainz information is incomplete
    • Search for Discogs match (if release not found in MusicBrainz)
    • Use existing metadata when matching songs (default)
    • Use filename when matching songs (default)
    • File folders represent a single album (default)
    • [LEAVE LINE BLANK TO VISUALLY SEPARATE ENTRIES BELOW FROM ENTRIES ABOVE]
    • When performing a match, give preference to:
      • Media formats: __CD __Vinyl __Cassette __Digital Media
      • Release date: [keep options you have]
      • Specific countries: [keep options you have]

Also, consider a “Profiles” button that allows you to visually compare one or more available profiles, and which SongKong options are different across the profiles (could show this information like a spreadsheet)

What major feature/improvement would you most like to see in SongKong?
#2

Thats great Dave just the sort of thing i was looking for, I put in a new thread intended for any SongKong UI suggestions, and I will work through your ideas.

#3

Okay I have read through this and agree with most of your suggestions, will come back to it and further study when working on SongKong, currently working on improving the user interface for Jaikoz !

Can I ask what platform you are using SongKong on as I m not seeing the tooltip cutting of problem.

#4

Thanks, Paul! I have to say, I think it is fantastic how open you are to suggestions. I have a lot of feedback, but I also really like the program. With regard to your question, I am running Song Kong on Windows 10. On my laptop, if I look at the Basic tab (for example), the tooltips for “For songs already fully matched,” “Rename files based on metadata,” “Update mood …”, “Only allow match” (both), and “Save changes to iTunes” all have tooltip text that cuts off.
Dave

#5

Hi Dave, some time has passed but going to go through your ideas now

  • Program should start in maximized mode (not minimized)
    Disagree, main screen is just a list of tasks so doesn’t need to take up whole screen

  • Program should start with the “Fix Songs” screen displayed
    Disagree, the recommended first task to use is Status Report, and on subsequent starts user could be wanting to use any task

  • Please make the button icons more intuitive.
    These have now been replace with icons from FontAwesome, so they are consistent and easier for me to add new icons

  • Use minimal text where possible, if a given function is obvious

    • Change “current profile” label to just “Profile”
      Profile now removed from this screen

    • Change “select folder” label to just “Folder”. Instead of using a “select folder” button, create a button at the end of the text box that is just a visual image of a folder that people can click on.
      Okay good idea.

  • Move “Update License” to the Help menu
    Why, not sure about that

  • Check all of your tooltips and make sure that all of the text in your tooltip actually displays on the screen when you hover over an item with your mouse. About half of the time when I see a tooltip the text cuts off unexpectedly.
    Screenshot would be useful because I’m not seeing this

  • Add another section to the menu entitled “Configure,” and move the following items from the “File” menu into this “Configure” menu

    • “Start Remote Mode”
    • “Empty Database”
    • “Preferences”
      Added Admin menu, but I think Preferences and Start Remote Mode should stay under File menu

  • Choosing the Configure menu option should just open a tab containing all of the above options on a single page
    Done as a submenu

    • Eliminate “Song Kong Wizard” from the “File” menu and simply add a check box to the Configure page that says “Optimize preferences for iTunes”
      Done

  • Basic tab

    • Put the “Current Profile” and “Select Folder” text box that appears when you open the program , at the top of this “Basic” tab
      We now have per task profiles, and selected profile now shown on each option tab

    • Change “Preview only” to “Preview changes only”
      Seems to contradict your previous idea about keeping text short

    • Change to “Ignore songs that could not previously be matched”
      Disagree, less explicit

    • Change to the following (noting indentations)

      • Update
        • Artwork
        • Genres
        • Acoustic attributes (mood, BPM, etc.)(Pro or Melco License only)

Indenting is good idea

* Perform match if
  * All tracks in album are matched
  * All songs in grouping match to one album

Agreed

  • Match tab. Please consider changing as follows (I am basing this on info in your help file):
    • Search for MusicBrainz match (default)
      • Supplement with Discogs when MusicBrainz information is incomplete
    • Search for Discogs match (if release not found in MusicBrainz)
    • Use existing metadata when matching songs (default)
    • Use filename when matching songs (default)
    • File folders represent a single album (default)
    • [LEAVE LINE BLANK TO VISUALLY SEPARATE ENTRIES BELOW FROM ENTRIES ABOVE]
    • When performing a match, give preference to:
      • Media formats: __CD __Vinyl __Cassette __Digital Media
      • Release date: [keep options you have]
      • Specific countries: [keep options you have]

Agreed, indenting is good idea

Also, consider a “Profiles” button that allows you to visually compare one or more available profiles, and which SongKong options are different across the profiles (could show this information like a spreadsheet)

Interesting idea, not as important now that we have profiles limited per task, but I see it could still be useful.

#6

Hi Paul,

A simple one: when clicking on Exit, it takes a few seconds before closing.
Could you just change the mouse cursor to “busy” or display a blinking label “closing”, or if possible, just make the window invisible, so that our mind is relieved during this looooong seconds of uncertainty (did I click well on Exit?!).

J.