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 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.
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 that’s because I would list the paused episodes at the top of the list.
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.
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
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 …)
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.
I love your enthusiasm and engagement 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
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
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.
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 I have good hopes, though, that the new home for the playback history would be fine for most users.
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.
This is certainly not for everyone (workflow), but i think this could be a good default, because its simple and all in one place
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
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.
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 ) 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
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 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
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
Workflow=userstory, however gotlike to call it, there are different ones.
I’m only subscribed to podcast I want to listen to, so I mainly use the EpisodesScreen to check if there are new ones and then listen to them, rarely I go to a podcast feed via the sidebar to listen to older episodes. That’s basically, easy and straightforward that’s why I was confused by the sidebar at first, because there are so many items, to me the only ones necessary are discovery, to add new podcasts, and then the combined feed of all subscriptions.
Also I think this is somewhat a regular user expects, similar to the subscription feed in YouTube.
I get the new/queue workflow, but its certainly not for everyone, and the way it is now, it’s almost impossible to discover.
So this proposal only makes when an inbox is introduced seperatly, because it breaks the new/queue workflow.
I’m not sure how the homescreen fits in, let’s take your first userstory, to restart playback, you can just use the bottomsheetplayer, with the inbox you fill the queue, done, no need for a homescreen.
I don’t where your stand, but do you want to provide choice to use AP as one wants or make a unified UX that makes sense to everyone? Because right know it feels it’s somewhat in between. I guess I only feel strongly about not making inbox/queue the default, as I feel it is kind of a niche workflow/userstory and hard to discover, but currently it’s equally hard to discover how the Episodes screen works with all the tabs (and I found that Episodes is the subscriptions feed only by trial and error)…
I just don’t think we should make this a “default” behavior for everyone.
that’s because I would list the paused episodes at the top of the list.
Then how do you feel about this 
) 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