I want to say that Amarok user interface is messy. i cannot work with it easily. i think Amarok need a feature (optional) to change user interface to a simple one for whom that like it.

Define messy? You can already change the layout, have a look at the View menu. For more information, see also http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/R ... e/ViewMenu

OK, for example see the folowing image:

where are previous, next and stop buttons?
i know that they are under amarok menu button but any music player should have these buttons in its user interface not under a menu botton. also i know that in slim toolbar these bottons exist but why in main toolbar they do not exist?
i want to say if someone that isn't familiar with amarok see it's user interface, he/she could not guess that this is a music player (compaire amarok user interface with KMplayer, VLC, Windows media player and so on interfaces).

MrAli wrote:where are previous, next and stop buttons?
i know that they are under amarok menu button but any music player should have these buttons in its user interface not under a menu botton. also i know that in slim toolbar these bottons exist but why in main toolbar they do not exist?
i want to say if someone that isn't familiar with amarok see it's user interface, he/she could not guess that this is a music player (compaire amarok user interface with KMplayer, VLC, Windows media player and so on interfaces).

On the main toolbar, next and previous are the names of the next and previous tracks to the right and left of the current track name. There is no stop button on the main toolbar (a decision I personally agree with, as I never use stop, only track switch or pause). If you need it, use the slim toolbar.

The examples you give all have video playback capability and are not pure audio players, so I'm not sure why you feel Amarok should look like them (or the implication that all software performing a particular task should look the same!). The dominant user interface widget is one we by definition do not have! And KMplayer and VLC do not include complex library management or context displays, so obviously they're not going to look like Amarok in that respect either.
Also, for an example of a media player that does share certain interface features with Amarok, look at iTunes.

Sentynel wrote:On the main toolbar, next and previous are the names of the next and previous tracks to the right and left of the current track name. There is no stop button on the main toolbar (a decision I personally agree with, as I never use stop, only track switch or pause)

you are right, i did not notice that.
but about stop button, i think it is useful in some situations.

That's just a mess. It's just the truth. There's so much stuff crammed in that window, it's bewildering. Put a user new to Amarok in front of it and ask him where "the music" is and see how long it takes him to figure it out.

The biggest problem is that the UI does not give prominence to "the music." It gives preference to metadata like pictures and ratings and Wikipedia and lyrics (which are not more important than the music itself--they are occasional supplements, not the main function of the app).

It's also full of buttons and other clickable items that don't fit UI conventions. Finally, it has many buttons and features whose function is ambiguous.

In the following screenshots, it's like the clouds have been lifted away. Flame me if you want, but I'm calling it as I see it, as a formerly loyal Amarok user who is saddened by the direction Amarok has gone.

The screenshot at the end, of Clementine 1.0, is particularly striking in its straightforwardness and clarity compared to the current Amarok.

http://www.techtickle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Amarok_1.4.9_en.png

http://images.clementine-player.org/scr ... -1.0-4.png

You can make Amarok look like this screenshot of Clementine.

I very much agree that Amarok's interface is difficult to work with. And while you can configure some things, I don't think the configurability is nearly as broad as most KDE apps. Yes, you can remove the Wikipedia and other information view, but it doesn't seem like you can selectively add back components. I'm not sure how to adjust the background image. However, the biggest problem is the file/media browser.

The file/media browser very much feels like navigating a directory tree. It would be great to have multiple window panes showing just artists, titles, etc similar to the old classic of Winamp and now Songbird. I still haven't figured out how to reorganize the file browser so it skips past the album.

Incidentally, I accidentally had Amarok "organize" my file collection. Whoops! Since many albums have multiple artists and it separated each artist grouping into it's own folder, I have tons of folders with just one song! That's frustrating. Plus I now have a lot of folders named things like "De La Soul - [random person". I don't know if I'll have time to ever get it organized again.

I would like to have an option for Amarok to ignore the artist after the first one. With these albums with multiple artists, I only usually care about the first named artist. It is not helpful for me to have 10 different artists just to encompass the guest artists.

How can you "accidentally" use the "Organize Collection" feature? That needs at least 3 clicks from you and shows you an interface where you have to select options. That is not something one can do accidentally, really not.

The interface, if I recall correctly, seemed fairly impenetrable. Perhaps the userbase would help (altho I haven't found the userbase to be all that helpful for most things). EDIT: Looks like this is covered in the Amarok Manual (http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/O ... Collection). Hefty document, which is nice.

I like to test out applications, so I guess I clicked around more than I should have. The name "Organize Collections" doesn't give me a good indication that it was going to be messing around with my actual files and folders, and I would have appreciated a warning. Perhaps I got one and didn't notice it though. In any case, Organize Collections appears to be somewhat broken. I can't imagine why someone would want to split their music folders up by adding a dozens of half-empty folders.

The current version of Amarok says ‘organize files’ rather than ‘organize collection’ or whatever, which seems pretty unambiguous to me.

The way Amarok organizes your collection is also configurable. If you switch to organizing your collection by the Album Artist tag rather than the Artist tag (and your music is tagged accurately), it will put things in their proper place. For guest appearances on an album by one band or artist, it will sort them under the overall album's artist's name. Have your compilations Album Artist tag as ‘Various Artists’, and they'll go to the right place as well.

Would it be possible to add such panel (as option) as it is in Rythmbox - containing Genre - Artist - Album view
Current "tree like" view of sorting collections is not my prefereable way of searching for items. Perhaps it is a matter of getting use to it but somehow I like Rythmbox way. Sure I still can use Rythmbox but on KDE I prefer using KDE apps.

Other thing is that I can't see option to make Amarok display genre and other tag columns in Playlist panel
http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase/f/fb/Amarok_layout11.png
Is it possible?

apache wrote:Would it be possible to add such panel (as option) as it is in Rythmbox - containing Genre - Artist - Album view

That would need a lot of chances in the codebase, and we don't aim to look like Rythmbox, sorry.

apache wrote:Other thing is that I can't see option to make Amarok display genre and other tag columns in Playlist panel
http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase/f/fb/Amarok_layout11.png Is it possible?

Yes, of course, you can change the Playlist layout as much as you like, have a look at the Playlist Menu -> Playlist Layouts. See also http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/R ... st_Layouts for more details.