The fact that I spent ten minutes looking for this before giving up and googling is a usability fail.

Fourteen years of using digital music playback software and this is the first time I could not intuitively find the repeat/random buttons. Seriously.. it's one thing to hide them away, it's another to put them in the bottom right under an icon that doesn't look anything like a standard repeat/shuffle/random icon, and to also NOT have these options in the "Playlist" menu.

You're correct, this is free software, and there are manuals. The iPad is a $600 advanced computer that comes with no manual, that everyone knows how to use. I don't own one, Will.I.Am said this when Steve Jobs died.. and there's truth to this. Truly amazing software doesn't require a manual. You know how to use it out of the box.

Any chance of putting this button somewhere where the average joe doesn't have to Google "amarok how to set repeat" to set repeat? I love this software to death,, and I'd pay some money if you could fix this because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is. This is kinda ridiculous. I want to find the "usability expert" who said this should be hidden on the bottom, removed from the transport control window, removed from the playlist menu, and behind a non-descriptive icon. I want to read his resume and see what other software he's improved the usability of.

Show me one program that uses a green blob in a 5x5 pixel icon on the bottom right of the program to say repeat/repeat 1/shuffle while excluding it from the playlist dropdown menu, and I'll contribute $200 today. But seriously, if someone fixes this, I will pay you for your time. I am going to get laughed at recommending amarok to people if this green blob on the bottom is the only way to select shuffle/repeat. I don't like getting laughed at when suggesting people give linux a try.

Me: "No, it's not as hard as they say."
Him: "Ok, so how do I shuffle?"
Me: "Well, see this green blob totally out of sight on the bottom right? Yeah, click that"
Him: "Blank stare"

Yes I agree that the Track Progression icon may not be a very obvious one. The functionality behind it offers a bit more than just Random and Repeat, at the expense of good discoverability. The way it's implemented is pretty geeky.

So yes, it's worth discussing how to make the feature easier to find/use.

Hello.
Is there of any use to write that I lost many minutes everytime I used amarok in opensuse 13.2 trying to discover where the repeat button is?
I usually don't forgive software I can't use properly. Unfortunately other players don't play m4a on my system (clementine) or can't make/edit a playlist easy way (kaffeine, vlc). So, my option are pretty limited actually. I refused to go google but I had to give up eventually and find the solution on this forum. Are you trying to get some statistics from this forum this way? If yes, it's not really the brightest idea.
After 1 year and half from last post that button is still the not-obvious, geeky teenager option. I meant: this is an option you can find how to use only by spending time, either RTFI or looking on web, no other way around. Time which I don't have, it's a commodity is getting slowly away from me. The same for many buggy or intricate FOSS software. Creation is great, I admit. I am myself a little creator from time to time. And it's even greater when is free. I was just looking for a practical and easy use of a FOSS creation, which it happens this time to be Amarok.

I also come with some ideas along with my complaints. That bar under playlist has plenty of space. I'd put all the hidden options on that bar. At least, when one is looking for "that" button, seeing the double arrowed icon gives an obvious idea of "repeat" for someone coming from winamp. An easy patch can be even faster: when the player launches, take care to make the loop icon appear on the bar instead of the confusing track progression. Moreover, the "help" tip on that button with text "Track progression" is the n-th failure in this unfortunate choices chain. Which leads me again to the idea that developers did that by purpose in order to gather information about software use, numbers, geographical spreading etc. It's just way too many in-chain unfortunate "innocent" choices. For the help tip you could choose "track options" instead "track progression". Any of these things I told you here could have prevented me spending time to find solutions on internet, looking in the manual (which doesn't look up keywords per each software, I had to go from chapter to chapter looking up for "repeat", thanks again) and making an account in order to post my thoughts (and increasing your statistics user=user+1). I hope I contributed with something after all, as else I barely know to program arithmetic operations.

Please make the FOSS less and less the hell of the good intentions. Time is valuable and more expensive than a piece of software, and one might be forced to choose commercial software because of that. Creating digital art carelessly it's worse and uglier than not doing it at all. But yes, it's matter of choice at the end of the day, such a sneaky choice... I wish I knew to write programs. Thank you for Amarok anyway, I use it better now.

Best regards.

Seriously, why do you post this in a thread that old? Nobody will read it. Also try to be a bit shorter and to the point, tl;dr

So what exactly is your point?

Thanks!

Mamarok wrote:Seriously, why do you post this in a thread that old? Nobody will read it. Also try to be a bit shorter and to the point, tl;dr

So what exactly is your point?

Manager,

My (first) point was described in the very first sentence.

Is there of any use to write that I lost many minutes everytime I used amarok in opensuse 13.2 trying to discover where the repeat button is?

It is old thread because I didn't find a better one, and I bet people like me don't bother to write any longer, there are several alternatives, it's only me trying to ring the bell. Helloo.. the repeat button's still hidden.. after 2 years from the last promise.
And the message is long because it contains 'Information' and I didn't take my time to write short messages one after another.

Well, there were more points not one, in fact I gave you some client-side, straight-forward ideas about how we, users, expect this software to work.
Please, take your time, read (again) -only if you want- my former message, on a Tuesday or Wednesday, morning, after coffee. And, please, if you answer and have no technical knowledge of what I'm talking about, please do not reply with empty hands. If you don't get what I want to say, please quote exactly where is the questionable matter.

Again, I thank developers for their great work. Please go ahead people and make the software work intuitively. Make it usable for dumbs like me, if you think this is what I am.
Modify the "help" so it will be able to search and point the keywords more accurately. Learn from window$'s help if necessary. Or from "dtsearch". If you don't understand what I'm talking about, again, ask a window$ user to figure out how to make Amarok to repeat, without googling. You'll be going to get the point at last. Name it "clinical trial". While you've got experts around, let the beginners to be given the chance for face to face feedback, to show you exactly where the problem is.

And no manuals to be needed in order to operate basic features in entertainment software please..

Thank you!

PS: Manager, what on Earth is "tl;dr"?