CF 1.6 First impressions

justintime · 03-06-2006, 08:11 AM

Rtaher than post something like 'It rocks', or 'it sucks', I thought I'd put together a few things I've noticed...

THE GOOD:
-A very complete package. Lots of goodies included out of the box: OBDII, XM, Phone, Pictures, Media, Navi, and more.
-Visualization/Screensaver galore.

THE BAD:
-Single click is gone.
-Can't easily switch between GPS full screen, and Media. With 1.5 I could switch between these two modes with ONE CLICK. Wow, what a concept. ONE CLICK. It takes 3 clicks now. One to disable fullscreen, one to click menu, and a third to click Media.
-Provided license for 1.6 is not accepted. Let the CF License problems begin

-Feels slower than 1.5. Lots of screen refreshes are noticeable when going from one mode to another.

THE UGLY:
-Interface MAZE! OMG, it's so easy to get lost in this thing. And it takes numerous clicks to go from A to B. Same tasks that took 1-2 clicks on 1.5 are taking 3-4 clicks or more. It got frustrating after only 2 minutes, and can't possibly use something like this, especially in a car when moving at 60+ mph. I'm not entirely convinced this can be fixed with a new skin -- seems more a problem of the underlying app structure and flow.
-Skin is mostly black and white. Could have saved a few $$$ and gotten a B&W screen.

All in all, a nice attempt, with lots of new features. But usability has gone the way of the do-do!

Uh Uh Uh, You didn't say the magic word !

GReeToZ · 03-06-2006, 09:28 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

Rtaher than post something like 'It rocks', or 'it sucks', I thought I'd put together a few things I've noticed...

THE GOOD:
-A very complete package. Lots of goodies included out of the box: OBDII, XM, Phone, Pictures, Media, Navi, and more.
-Visualization/Screensaver galore.

Agreed

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

THE BAD:
-Single click is gone.
-Can't easily switch between GPS full screen, and Media. With 1.5 I could switch between these two modes with ONE CLICK. Wow, what a concept. ONE CLICK. It takes 3 clicks now. One to disable fullscreen, one to click menu, and a third to click Media.
-Provided license for 1.6 is not accepted. Let the CF License problems begin

-Feels slower than 1.5. Lots of screen refreshes are noticeable when going from one mode to another.

- single click i did not use never had the need for it :P
- license worked here perfect
- still have to install it on my epia on the desktop runs fine very fast.

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

THE UGLY:
-Interface MAZE! OMG, it's so wasy to get lost in this thing. And it takes numerous clicks to go from A to B. Same tasks that took 1-2 clicks on 1.5 are taking 3-4 clicks or more. It got frustrating after only 2 minutes, and can't possibly use something like this, especially in a car when moving at 60+ mph. I'm not entirely convinced this can be fixed with a new skin -- seems more a problem of the underlying app structure and flow.
-Skin is mostly black and white. Could have saved a few $$$ and gotten a B&W screen.

All in all, a nice attempt, with lots of new features. But usability has gone the way of the do-do!

- the interface is the same? only new thing is the menu bar. rest is pretty much the same just put you're most used apps in the menu bar, don't tell me you switch between obdII, Media, Tv, camera al the time. maybe for testing now but not in actual use.
- agreed the skin is not very nice and the buttons for play/stop/close look a lot like media engine. i was using the orange skin before and liked it.

will post my actual incar impressions soon

edit:
as promised some incar experience:

as for the skin i like it for in the car. its very clear! and the buttons not hard to use same as in other versions.

the media library is a bit different but i got used to it very fast.

the nav is also clear only the GPS settings is not skinned yet looks really outta place. other than that not much to complain

OoNikFraleyoO · 03-06-2006, 11:57 AM

Like GReeToZ said, the interface is pretty much the same except for the drop down menu. It really shouldn't add but one click to anything. I'm still not sure I like it though. I do like the rest of the skin but I think I'm gonna go ahead get started on a brushed aluminum version cause this one aint gonna work for me during the day, too much black.

veetid · 03-06-2006, 12:13 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by OoNikFraleyoO

Like GReeToZ said, the interface is pretty much the same except for the drop down menu. It really shouldn't add but one click to anything. I'm still not sure I like it though. I do like the rest of the skin but I think I'm gonna go ahead get started on a brushed aluminum version cause this one aint gonna work for me during the day, too much black.

We are working on a day skin as well as 4:3 version for both...

You can also use the X in the bottom right corner to quickly get back to the main menu...

david

justintime · 03-06-2006, 12:14 PM

I think I have come to the conclusion that the drop-down menu is really not the greatest idea.

Furthermore, I remember when some people where defending this concept, way back when David released 1.6 screenshots, and the one Possitive aspect of it was that it would make more room for the lists etc.

Well, as far as I can tell (Look at the media screen), the left hand side now has a bunch of icons instead of the 1.5 'fixed' menu. So, the screen real estate for song lists etc remains the same.

Point of having the the drop-down menu? I have no clue, except for the fact that it requires 2 clicks (and possible 2 glances at the screen while driving).
I don't think I will ever get used to the fact that CF now requires so much attention and clicks to get from one place to another. It really is CF's pitfall, whish is very sad because this was a great feature in 1.5 and earlier. (Fixed menu on every screen).

Sorry, not trying to bash David's efforts. I give usability #1 priority over everything else when it comes to a CarPC interface, but I know this is not everyone's priority. I would rather have less clicks to make, than have all the bells and whistles.

I can't say this is not a little depressing!!!

HoSS · 03-06-2006, 12:17 PM

@ Justintime: If you feel this way about it just leave it & use RR or Frodo or whatever.

I think this frontend is awesome. I have no disrespect for the people who have put work into the other frontends, but this has moved things a step further. It is integrated, stable, very professional in appearance....
This is the first instance of a front end that i would actually pay money for ( i suspect that is somewhere in the pipeline for CF, and i would)

Very well done CF team!

JC-S60 · 03-06-2006, 12:18 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

I think I have come to the conclusion that the drop-down menu is really not the greatest idea.

I can't say this is not a little depressing!!!

A skin CAN fix this I think.

David? Is it possible to have each (menu-)button on each screen?

justintime · 03-06-2006, 12:20 PM

HoSS: I will use whatever FrontEnd I wish, as you have suggested.

That won't keep me from giving CONSTRUCTIVE feeback to David, so I hope you don't mind. If you don't like my posts however, you are free to close your eyes, or look elsewhere.

justintime · 03-06-2006, 12:21 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by JC-S60

A skin CAN fix this I think.

David? Is it possible to have each (menu-)button on each screen?

Oh, I want to know this too! That would be a light of hope

turbocad6 · 03-06-2006, 12:42 PM

my guess is that although there is support for a drop down menu, a skinner could take this or leave it, I'm sure skins can be built without having to use a drop down menu.....

HoSS · 03-06-2006, 12:45 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

HoSS: I will use whatever FrontEnd I wish, as you have suggested.
That won't keep me from giving CONSTRUCTIVE feeback to David, so I hope you don't mind. If you don't like my posts however, you are free to close your eyes, or look elsewhere.

90% of your comment was destructive not constructive, with not other foundation than - you personally don't like the way it works...

Jahntassa · 03-06-2006, 01:14 PM

He was voicing his concerns over usability of the new menu. Yes, that part isn't very constructive, but at least he gave some (darn good) reasons for the dislike and request to have it changed.

He's doing better than "I don't like it", but stating that he doesn't like the fact that he has to spend more time paying attention on what he's clicking than he had to before. I see that as perfectly valid.

justintime · 03-06-2006, 01:16 PM

OK, so Back on topic...

Turbocad: I sure wish I was wrong, but upon close inspection of the new skin XML file, it appears that the drop down menu is a MUST.

Basically, there is a region defined (the 'closed menu', that when clicked, will reveal a full 'menu' image (i.e., the open dropped-down menu).

I hope David proves me wrong!

liquid_smoke · 03-06-2006, 01:29 PM

i would have to agree with Justintime 100% on every he said.
But also would like to add some other observations:

Along with usability being #1 requirement, i have to give a hats off to david for the setup for CF. Absolutely the best setup/config tool for any frontend avail. I can feel confident that if i were to install CF in my car i can go through the whole setup and not go blind in the process or have to fiddle with txt files etc.

The media manager is still very confuseing, takes too many clicks to play music.
This is the fastest version of CF, zero lag, but thats on my desktop.

Overall i like the new version a lot, there are some UI issues that could be fixed with a skin, but with NO tools to create a skin its gonna be more of the same (only color variations based on original skin, maybe 1 or 2 original skins) which is a shame.

Seems to be pretty stable now, and no serious issues that make using it impossible, other than the double click, no way you can acually use it in the car with double clicks everywhere.

overall very nice, and i would recomend CF to a non computer savy user to get up and running quickly, but ill still use RoadRunner.

GReeToZ · 03-06-2006, 02:13 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by liquid_smoke

.......

agreed although i always view my music in directory mode when i see the album i want i just press PLAY when i want another album i press the media manager button select the album and play unless you're list is 100 clicks long its not that bad as you don't have to select which way you want to select music everytime (artist, album etc)

about the skinner. i think you need to take in consideration that this is the first release with the final skinning 'code?' in place a skinner would be only time consuming to make a skinner for every release. however now the skin is final i hope to see one soon after any mayor bugs are fixed. If David would have asked peeps here if they rather wait for CF1.6 with skinner but then the release would be later everybody would scream release without

the thing i like of CF that its a whole package i don't want to keep messing with ini files etc just want to install and having it working day after day for me carputing is a hobby but most of all i use it because of the features like a lot of music and navi not because i want to tweak it every weekend

but i hope just like justintime that the dropdown is optional as that would greatly improve the amount of skins that will be made for cf.