Libretime: Feature Request: Simplify smartblock criteria selection choices to improve UX

[Robbt]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When a user is creating a new smartblock there are an overwhelming number of criteria on the list that are provided to select from when they are unlikely to use some of them ever such as BPM, Sample Rate, ReplayGain and thus more useful filters such as Genre, Length, Creator, Uploaded On are less visible.

Describe the solution you'd like
I'm not sure the best solution but a couple come to mind and I'll highlight them under alternatives below.

Describe alternatives you've considered
One is to reorder the criteria so that the more used ones are at the top and the more obscure ones are at the bottom of the dropdown. We don't have any good metrics to determine what people are using for sure though so we would be guessing.

Another option would be to show a parred down number of options and provide a toggle switch called show advanced criteria that would add the additional options to the dropdown.

A third option would be to simply remove the fields we think are unlikely to be used and make a global setting called "advanced criteria" and then allow an admin to turn on or off advanced criteria on a site-wide basis or even on a role-by-role basis. This could make it so people who are just getting started with libretime have a simpler UI to learn and aren't as overwhelmed by the options when creating smartblocks.

A fourth and even simpler option would be to simply remove some fields from the criteria that are unlikely to be useful for the creation of smartblocks such as cue in and cue out.

Additional context
No screenshots or mockups have been made yet but they would be useful for imagining these options and determining what makes the most sense.

[JohnnyC1951]

I like all the options that we have. Make an 'Advanced' toggle if you must. Our in-departmental-store retail ARM box customers wanted different BPM and Moods at different times of day and in different departments. and so it was useful. I have no idea if it actually increased sales. Of course, first you have to get the data IN to be able to use it.

[paddatrapper]

I think hiding the more obscure items behind an advanced toggle is a good idea

[JohnnyC1951]

I would just like to say: You guys are all doing exceedingly well. Really. I am very pleasantly surprised and impressed. This comment will be stricken as off-topic, so take the complement while it is fresh. :)

[paddatrapper]

Heh thanks! I'm also impressed at how far the project has come in such a relatively short time

[frecuencialibre]

i personally don't see the laundry list as a _huuuge_ problem. @Robbt have you seen folks bewildered by this one? (sweet verb eh?)

i would support a setting toggle, but think we'd need to do it well. another item on my smartblock todo list has been to at least improve the visual layout of the confusing "new modifier" vs. "new criteria" multiple buttons and wierdly aligned delete button. a toggle would need to at least be right there close to the select element rather than lost in global settings at a different url IMO. the best option would be a "more" type item at the bottom of the select list, but that's not possible without replacing the standard html select element with something built with javascript, which i personally wouldn't look into until after first resolving other more critical bugs.

[Robbt]

I don't think any of the solutions I suggested are that great. This is more of an annoyance than a big deal and I created this issue just to make a note of it for further discussion.

[JohnnyC1951]

DONT throw a piano at me.. When could we hope for a release?

[paddatrapper]

@JohnnyC1951 release including this or release in general? If you mean the latter, alpha.6 was released about 4 hours ago :)

[JohnnyC1951]

Will give it a spin tomorrow (hopefully) GREAT JOB GUYS - I have been watching and chipping in sometimes. REALLY appreciated!

[JohnnyC1951]

Is it safe yet for me to chip in with code?

[paddatrapper]

Everyone is always welcome to submit PRs, so feel free!

[Robbt]

So one thought I just had on this is that smartblocks are great because they are so flexible but they are also intimidating to new users. I've been thinking about doing a number of videos explaining them but something that might be really useful is if there was a smartblock creation wizard that walked new users through the steps of building smartblocks for their station.

Wizards are really frowned upon by technical users and I'm not sure how to implement one but with a number of recipes in mind it could provide an alternative way of introducing the concepts and limiting the choices.

My plan is to create a series of tutorial videos that explain the possibilities and that might help but it might also be helpful if there were recipes or something along those lines that people could click and then it helped them make their ideal smartblock.

Or another idea is to just encourage them to use Genre: as a category and have a really simple smartblock creation that just asked them what genre they want and how many tracks of this genre they want to play.

Decoupling the limits and sorting of smartblocks from the criteria itself seems like a next logical step but it also looks like there are some bugs to be address in the smartblock world all together in #458.

For instance you could build a criteria that was title starts with PROMO:
or genre is "PSA" and the fact that every station is basically expected to come up with this mental means of organizing their tracks is absurd vs. us providing an learning example.

One idea could be to just have the option of creating example smartblocks that they could then duplicate and modify. There could be a button to say "create example smartblocks" tied together with a bulk metadata editor to say "change GENRE to promo"

The question is how much of this work we should do for them and whether at some point if it makes sense to just hardcode different concepts as something other than smartblocks vs. creating flexible but potentially reconfigurable to the point of being breakable.

[frecuencialibre]

i think videos are a great way to suggest techniques for organizing tracks for use with smartblocks. the concept of creating and saving advanced searches for use as building blocks within playlists etc. has huge potential, but i personally think that wizards etc. are next generation territory.

but anyway, whether or not we do get into improving smartblock UI, #458 should probably be fixed first.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the last 5 months. It will be closed if no activity occurs in the next month.
Please chat to us on discourse or ask for help on our chat if you have any questions or need further support with getting this issue resolved.
You may also label an issue as pinned if you would like to make sure that it does not get closed by this bot.