Episodes screen proposal

1

Great work and great MockUps!

May i suggest somewhat of a poweruser version, this is supposed to be the only screen necessary for the day to day use:

Screenshot_20210507-143808_AntennaPod Debug
Screenshot_20210507-143808_AntennaPod Debug1290×2306 369 KB

(its not as beautifully made as yours @keunes but i hope the idea is clear)

Advantage would be that is could quite easily derived from the current new/all/fav epsiodes fragment and that it could be completly optional (just as all the other screens in the sidebar).

This is something i would wanna use, if theres anyody else that likes this (?) and @ByteHamster would be willing to merge something like this, i could work on this (after my current PR is done) :smiley:

This is not to replace the more ellaborate homescreen above, i thinks thats a great idea for new users, thats just not something i would work on, but i think its great if there are options to customize AP to how you want to use it :slight_smile:

Explanation: This is a list of all subscriptions that can be filtered with the floating button at the bottom, the “+ add pocast” button opens the discovery fragment as used to. Currently playing/unfinished episode are at the top and can be dissmissed (-> mark as played) by swiping. Please ask if you have any question :slight_smile:

EDIT “add podcast” should be in the toolbar

2

To be honest, I’m not sure how this is fundamentally different from the Episodes»All screen, filtered to show played only. Adding new screens needs to have really, really good reasons. I would rather like to remove screens instead.

Do you mark episodes as played without actually playing them? Sounds a bit strange to me. I mean, feel free to do it for you :slight_smile: I just don’t think we should make this a “default” behavior for everyone.

I will move the comment out of the discussion here, as it is not really referring to the home screen proposal above.

3

Well this can also serve as a replacement for other fragments, don’t know.

The mark as played is only for paused episodes you maybe don’t want to finish, and therefore mark as played :wink: that’s because I would list the paused episodes at the top of the list.

4

It looks indeed to me like it is the Episodes screen, with a few changes:

  • Direct access to ‘Discover’ or ‘Add podcast’ screen
  • Can swipe episodes to ‘mark as played’ (but I think this should be configurable)
  • Have ‘quick filters’ similar to the tabs we have now, but as a floating thing on the bottom (which is actually an interesting concept to replace tabs)

In fact this feels to me pretty related to the Introduce new screen/sytem: ‘Inbox’, more than the home screen.

So from @ueen’s description this doesn’t seem to be happening here.
But I believe I’ve seen people describe this more often on GitHub. And in fact my boyfriend does this: goes to episodes list of a specific podcast, goes through the list, and downloads some while marks others as played. Hence my suggestion to introduce an ignored state for the inbox.

5

The Inbox looks good, its actually similar, sorry I don’t know all the topics/issues/PR.

I think this might actually make a good default, expect when there aren’t any subscriptions, then the discovery screen should be shown first.
I think this might be a good idea for new users, with these two screens they can do all the typical things without using the sidebar at all! (This was confusing at least to me at first and also with gesture control, sidebars are harder to reach)

As this is actually pretty simple up implement I might be able to make a working PR in the next week and you can have a look.

Configurable actions are interesting to, would probably require a little bit more work, but could be integrated in the future as well.

dismisd as played

I feel the described behavior makes sense, don’t you sometimes start listen to a podcast and then find it boring? Or you actually are finished and just the last few minutes remain (and it isn’t recognized as played)

remove screens

I agree! While I think they might be hidden by default (some choice is good), this proposal could replace somewhat all other sidebar screens expect for discovery (and maybe queue, but I don’t really know how it works)! (s. Suggested user flow above)

I know you probably talked a lot about this already and it’s annoying if somebody comes in and scrapes everything and has another idea, so if you aren’t even considering to merge a PR with something like this (as a kind of default homescreen, episodes replacement or new optinal “Inbox”) then just please tell me, this is my free time also after all :blush:

6

Agree with previous posts. Seems to me more like an updated version for episodes screen.

I don’t like the floating bottom toolbar. I find it really hard to notice. I prefer tabs as they are more noticeable.
If tabs where to be replaced IMHO a drop-down list or popping up a filter dialog would be better as it wouldn’t limit which episodes you want to filter. (Status / date / favorites / not in queue / not downloaded 
)

2 Likes
7

Since @ByteHamster doesn’t want to have a separate Inbox screen as I orinigally proposed, we should work towards one single Episodes screen with all the functionality desired.

To introduce even more context, there’s also a discussion about moving from sidebar to bottom navigation :slight_smile:

I love your enthusiasm and engagement :slight_smile: And I will try and make some mock-ups that address that merge your ideas & my Inbox proposal. But to be honest next week might be a bit ambitious (finalising & merging the other PR probably needs time, and I think we need some further discussion/mock-ups first on the new episodes screen).

I’m not sure about that - different people have quite different workflows. But that doesn’t mean we can’t improve the workflows we use & know of :slight_smile:

8

The thing is that a) you don’t see what (filter) options you have available, and b) that you have to make an extra tap to switch views.

What I really like is

  • getting rid of the swipable tabs (e.g. swipe left/right to move between New and All tabs)
  • using scrollable tabs with icons instead

Mainly because this allows to introduce swipe actions on episodes.

9

The more I think about it, the more I like it :wink:

10

:sweat_smile: Then how do you feel about this @ByteHamster ?

(I think that’s the only option to implement all we desire)

11

Yea removing tabs is always a good idea.

Bottom navigation not so much I think, because we already have the BottomSheet, but this episodes screen would also reduce the necessity of using the sidebar (depending on workflow of course).

Next week I might be able so put up a first draft PR with the basic functionality, was what I was saying :slight_smile:

12

Please wait before you implement something. We already changed the whole UI last October and I think the app should stay as consistent as possible.

Hmm. To me, this feels like it will make the app harder to use because users have to reach all the way to the top of the screen to display things like their favorite episodes.

In order to guide users more easily about the “workflow” with queue and “new” state, I think having a dedicated “Inbox” side menu item would be helpful. Maybe the “new” screen and the “Recently played” screen could switch positions. Then we no longer have a problem with swiping on the inbox/“new” screen.

13

Do people really switch that often? I would think just one of the screens is used most often, then the Favourites might only be visited occasionally.

Just to be sure I get it: so you’d be ok with having the Inbox as a dedicated fragment/screen with its own menu entry?

What do you mean? Not sure what the ‘Recently played’ screen is - do you refer to Playback History? Switch where - in the side menu?

14

I don’t know. Sometimes, collecting some metrics would really help with development


Only if we remove another sidebar entry instead. I don’t want the list to get longer and longer

I meant: Make the playback history a tab on the “episodes” screen and instead move the “new”/Inbox screen directly to the menu.

1 Like
15

Right, I see. I like that idea, think it could work! It would be interesting indeed to have metrics. But I reckon that if this gets implemented in Beta, we would already hear back if it was really not appreciated :slight_smile: I have good hopes, though, that the new home for the playback history would be fine for most users.

16

So then the New tab already is kind of the Inbox, no?

I made a proof of concept GitHub - ueen/AntennaPod at power-home

its not polished or anything, maybe you like to try it, an especially great feature is, that paused episodes are on top, so you dont forget to finish them, would be interesting to get some feedback. :innocent:

This is certainly not for everyone (workflow), but i think this could be a good default, because its simple and all in one place :slight_smile:

17

No, that’s the thing. It’s similar, but the Inbox proposal is far more extensive. The idea was first to merge them, but now ByteHamster suggested they could live seperately. So if they live seperately, we need to more clearly define their difference.

As there’s no CI tests in that repo I can’t download a debug build, so I can’t test. But please note that unless there’s agreement by the community, it’s not likely a PR will be accepted. So I would strongly advice you to hold off with actual development until we’re clear on which screens we’ll have, and what they’ll look like exactly. Otherwise you might well be wasting your time :wink:

It’s important to note that the Inbox screen is different from the Home screen. As I don’t know what you’re working on, I can’t really comment on the quote above.

18

The sidebar is pretty messy anyway, maybe some could be just hidden by default, the new/queue workflow seems useful for some, but i think for the majority this is way to complicated, so i wouldnt nudge torwards that workflow


Maybe there could be a welcome screen and the user can select a workflow, based on which different sets of sidebartabs are hidden, this needs to be designed well, but it could be helpful. I consider myself somewhat of techsavy, but it was impossible for me to figure out how New/Queue work, so i can only imagine how confused the regular user must be


I dont know, i just feel like, there should be a good, simple default (like this new episode screen :stuck_out_tongue: ) and then there must be a kind of tutorial or smth, how one can discover other workflows like new/queue (like “Want to try another way of using AP” and a small visual explanation), maybe @keunes has some ideas about userflow and presenting infomation like this :slight_smile:

19

yea maybe seperarting in inbox and a modified episodes fragment, does make sense then


so the way i see it there are three different workflows:

  • Homescreen
  • EpisodesFragment first
  • New/Queue

I think these should be seperated more clearly, because mixing them doesnt make much sense

Yea, but seeing/using is understanding :wink: Can i make a PR to build the CI?
https://21036-5244445-gh.circle-artifacts.com/0/app-play-debug.apk

20

They’re different screens, not different user stories.

Two different user stories:

1 I am subscribed to a lot of podcasts. Most of the time I work from the Home screen. From there I (re)initiate playback. Once in a while from the Home screen I open the Inbox screen to review new episodes. I select which ones I (might) want to listen, and which ones should be ignored. I make use of the queue and automatic download mechanisms, which uses the input I give in the Inbox screen. But sometimes from the Home screen I open the Queue screen or the ‘On device’ tab of the Episodes screen to find an episode from a specific podcast (from the list of episodes I have downloaded on my phone).

2 I’m not a regular podcast listener, and only am subscribed to three podcasts. I always work from the Home screen, because it gives quick access to my three podcasts and shows the newest episodes. I sometimes use the Inbox screen to find an episode I want to listen to. But most of the time from the Home screen I just open one of the Podcast screens to look for an episode that interests me. I don’t use the queue at all, because I only listen occasionally.

The first story is me, the second story is my boyfriend (and many others just starting with podcasts). As you can see, in both stories the Home screen is kind of the starting screen. But each user story involves multiple screens (which is why your list of screens isn’t a list of workflows). If the home screen doesn’t serve your user story, we should improve it :wink: Maybe you can write your user story in the same style as I have done? It would be very helpful!

I agree that we should improve the app for new starters, making AntennaPod work better for the two distinct user stories. Indeed a welcome screen that helps you set up the app could help. But it’s not an easy or quick decision - it’s been brought up briefly before (can’t find back the thread or issue now) and there’s quite a few things to consider.

So let’s first create & improve the screens we’re discussing here, and then after start a discussion about an interactive onboarding procedure :slight_smile:

Sure, but an interactive mock-up that you can click through does the same. And is a whole lot more efficient method to reach the same goal (because it’s much easier to make adjustments in a visual than rewrite whole pieces of code). But how you spend your time and whether you’re fine with trashing work because the concept is not accepted, that’s up to you of course :wink:

Thanks, I’ll have a look after my work day!