![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nfotxnAnd the verdict is in: Winamp3 RC1 is crap. Yes, new features and great architecture but a noticeable decrease in usability. Not that winamp ever really adheared to any popular human interface guidelines but it was definitely consistant within it's own terms.
Still nothing comes close to iTunes for PC. Windows Media Player still matches it's core functionality, yes, it's nowhere near as usable. Skinning is the worst thing to happen to usability in a long time. Fuck, what's with trusting some half-wit 16-year-old with a hacked copy of photoshop and some free fonts to design an interface? That's what MS has done with WMP. Infact, I often wonder if MS even has it's own guidelines for human interfaces anymore, the whole XP thing just seems totally off the wall in tangent to their previous efforts in win2k. Of course WinXP's "Luna" rolled out after Aqua was announced design by the traditionally Mac oriented Icon Factory.
File under "M" for non-sensical Musing.
Still nothing comes close to iTunes for PC. Windows Media Player still matches it's core functionality, yes, it's nowhere near as usable. Skinning is the worst thing to happen to usability in a long time. Fuck, what's with trusting some half-wit 16-year-old with a hacked copy of photoshop and some free fonts to design an interface? That's what MS has done with WMP. Infact, I often wonder if MS even has it's own guidelines for human interfaces anymore, the whole XP thing just seems totally off the wall in tangent to their previous efforts in win2k. Of course WinXP's "Luna" rolled out after Aqua was announced design by the traditionally Mac oriented Icon Factory.
File under "M" for non-sensical Musing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-08-08 06:33 pm (UTC)Winamp 3 beta is a piece of shit. LOL. The playlist is hard to use, the "Thinger" at the bottom is a bit awkward. *sigh* I've resorted to using an old version of Winamp. I hate WMP, but who doesn't?
They make iTunes for the PC?
no subject
Date: 2002-08-08 08:13 pm (UTC)I shoulda been more clear, nothing comes close to providing the same functionality as iTunes on the PC. That is there's no mp3/media player that's as good.
WMP is a piece of shit, always has been. MS's underlying media technologies are cool but I've never really seen them implimented into any sort of useful interface.
no subject
Date: 2002-08-11 10:30 am (UTC)Yeah, WA3 blowz. The media libray is broken, and the video support is spotty.
The features I use most are virtually unchanged, so it doesn't impact me that much.
I don’t see skinning as inherently bad, just that most skins are poorly designed. If you choose/design good skins, then skinning can enhance the UI.
see some of the skins for Audion (http://www.panic.com/audion/faces.php), like Icon.
iTunes is on my list of “must see”s.
re: XP “Luna”: It's the same UI, just with Fischer-Price colors and gratuitous shading. A total facade. All the elements are still the same, it's just chrome. I turn it off because I don't like the PlaySk00l vibe. Aqua is more visually appealing, but the jewel thing has this costume-jewelry/Barbie/My Little Pony/Jem feel that makes me not want to take it seriously.