I checked out amarok from cvs today to give it a try once again. I dragged some files to the playlist and tried to play one. An error message popped up:

No sound output selected!
Please select an output plugin in the engine settings dialog.

1. I don't think the error message (the exclamation mark in particular) is friendly enough. Users may think they did something wrong - but they didn't.

2. There's no apparent way to solve the problem right away. While the error message tells what to do, it doesn't actually say how to accomplish the task easily. The user has to know where the engine parameters reside. She has to
- find the menu button
- know that "configure amarok" is the right entry or find out by "trial&error"
- ...

Suggestions:

- Selecting the output plugin usually is a do-it-once-and-forget-about-it step. It's also the obvious next step after the message (you can't hear anything if you don't do it).
So why not incorporate a little drop down menu into the error message dialog to select the plugin right away? Alternatively you could provide a link which opens the appropriate settings panel.

- Change the error message to something friendlier like "What sound output plugin should be used? Please select one below"

kiki wrote:

I checked out amarok from cvs today to give it a try once again. I dragged some files to the playlist and tried to play one. An error message popped up:

No sound output selected!
Please select an output plugin in the engine settings dialog.

1. I don't think the error message (the exclamation mark in particular) is friendly enough. Users may think they did something wrong - but they didn't.

Good Point! I've made the text a bit friendlier, and changed it so that after the error dialog the settings dialog comes up automatically.

markey wrote:

and changed it so that after the error dialog the settings dialog comes up automatically.

Thanks, this sounds like a very good solution.