Web Utility redesign

[lkesteloot]

Hi everyone,

I'm an engineer at Kaleidescape. Thanks Josh for setting up these forums, it's a great way for us to get a better understanding of our users' needs.

One of the things we'd like to do in the next year is redesign the web utility. The driving reason is to make its graphic design more consistent with our other interfaces (on-screen display, touch panels). But at the same time it's a good opportunity to rework other aspects of it.

So I'd like to find out from forum readers how you currently use the web utility and how you wish it were different. For example:

- Who uses it in your house? How often?
- What do you use it for?
- Do you ever look at the home page? If you are a user, do you ever use the installer web utility?
- How do you use parental control? Do you find the way it works confusing?
- Do you wish the web utility were more animated and interactive, like the on-screen display, or would you prefer a more traditional web page to just get work done?
- Do you wish you could use the web utility more (add more features to it) or less (move features to the on-screen display)?

I'm basically looking for big-picture ideas for how it could make your experience with the Kaleidescape better.

Thanks!

Lawrence Kesteloot
Kaleidescape Engineering

 

[Mr.Poindexter]

One point I have made in the past is that I would like parental control to work on the web utility. I was told that generally it is only the owner who uses it, but in this day and age we have kids who use the computers and they are going to find the bookmarks in the favorites folder. Parental control is like locking the liquer cabinet, but if your kids know where the key is, how effective is that?

I use the installer utility a lot. While I am an installer, I am also a user and I use it as a user to see the status of the components and make sure things are grouped properly and configure the lighting on the players, etc.

I did like the older java applets better than the newer ones, but I haven't used the new ones much and it may just be me preferring what I was comfortable with.

 

[regwood]

Lawrence welcome.

I find myself using both the Users and Installer pages often. I check my servers and players from time to time. I also like to take a snapshot of my current settings for backup via the installer page. Also, I have never found the Parental Controls to be very intuitive.

On the User page, I use almost every feature. And as a result, I would love to see some sort of "Live Console View" that would allow the user to drill down into pertinent areas. It could be similar to the way we now switch from Movies-Music-System. But I would ask that the information be real time. This would eliminate the need to drill down in many cases.

Merging the interfaces is an excellent idea. I believe there are features that in both interfaces that could be used in the other. (For example, deleting movies from "Paused" or deleting Scripts). On the heads Up display, seeing a list of what playing on the different players would be cool also. Getting the "Collections" dance on the pc would be nice if there was a way to lauch movies from the same interface.

I will end my ramble now...

 

[josh]

lkesteloot

Welcome Lawrence! Great to have a Kaledescape engineer here!

Let me take this time to ask that all users post questions and issues on these forums, just as we have been, and NOT to email or PM Lawrence.

Let's not direct posts specifically to him, or "expect" answers from him or the company on anything posted here.

I've been on other boards where company representatives get hounded, or people somehow feel entitled to personal answers from them for every issue on their mind, and the person ends up leaving the forum.

He's been kind enough to "decloak" here... let's keep his involvement here positive and productive for all.

--josh

 

[josh]

So I'd like to find out from forum readers how you currently use the web utility and how you wish it were different. For example:

- Who uses it in your house? How often?
- What do you use it for?
- Do you ever look at the home page? If you are a user, do you ever use the installer web utility?
- How do you use parental control? Do you find the way it works confusing?
- Do you wish the web utility were more animated and interactive, like the on-screen display, or would you prefer a more traditional web page to just get work done?
- Do you wish you could use the web utility more (add more features to it) or less (move features to the on-screen display)?

I'm basically looking for big-picture ideas for how it could make your experience with the Kaleidescape better.

Thanks for the chance to provide feedback!

In my case, I'm the only one in the house that uses the web interface.

I use it mainly for the follwing:
1) edit metadata for unrecognized or misrecognized discs,
2) check on import status,
3) to name favorite scenes.

Secondary (less common) uses of the web interface:
4) I sometimes change a rating of a movie, for instance I was surprised to find that the movie "Hair" was PG... it has stuff in there I would not want my kids to see, so I changed it to an R rating
5) scripting - rare, but I like doing scripts sometimes
6) adding details and cover art to personal (home movie) DVDs
7) Playlist editing on music
8) Deleting content

In terms of frequency, I'm probably odd, but I'm on the web interface 4-5 times per week for something or another.

I do look at the home page... I find it the best/easiest way to see how much space is left, I sometimes like seeing the cover art of new movies, etc.

I've password protected the web interface... and frankly, the reason I DON'T permit my son to do any favorite scene stuff or scripting stuff (though he's capable) is because once you're in on the web interface, you can see all movie details, regardless of levels. There's no parental control on the web side. That's probably OK... I wouldn't want to have to mess with parental controls myself every time on the web side, but it means I treat it as an Admin function only for me.

As implied above... I DO use parental controls... I have one level for my 6-year old (the default level)... my 9-year old son has his own password to go up to PG-13, and my wife and I have the higher password to show all movies. I LOVE the parental control feature and the flexibility it affords my family. It was slightly confusing to set up, but I'm one of the few who really appreciated having multiple levels of parental controls, auto revert to a "safe" level, a quick "Safe" button on the remote... it's very well designed.

I also use the installer utility... I change LED levels, I check the logs sometimes to see if software changed, I modify device settings sometimes.

As for improvements, I wouldn't necessarily ask for more animation, but some tactical uses of Javascript or AJAX-type features might be nice... for instance, drag/drop titles onto playlists. one improvement would be the option to see cover art in the movie/music list views on the web UI. With enough movies/discs, it's sometimes easier to scroll quickly down and find the cover I want.

I'd like a way to not have to go to the web UI to change out a trailer or movie for a script. See the thread elsewhere on the board... adding in script commands like "Choose a random trailer from collection {x}" or "Play first item in collection {y}" would solve that.

Overall, however, the balance between what I can do on screen, and what is done via the Web UI is pretty good.

Thanks for listening and giving us the chance to be heard!

--josh

 

[rgbyhkr]

Lawrence,

- Who uses it in your house? How often?

I'm the only one who uses it in my house and I use it daily.

- What do you use it for?

- Accessing the various Music and Movie Control Panels
- Keeping tabs on disc imports
- Script creation and editing
- Browsing my collection
- Enter/Editing missed or misidentified commercial discs as well as my own home created content
- Collection creation and editing
- Occasional preference tweaking

- Do you ever look at the home page? If you are a user, do you ever use the installer web utility?

I have both the home UI and the installer UI bookmarked on my computers on the network. I don't go into the installer web utility as often, but I do now and then to play with aspect ratios or change other settings. I've hot the diagnostics page a few times when I had an issue pop up.

- How do you use parental control? Do you find the way it works confusing?

Haven't used it yet - kids are too young.

- Do you wish the web utility were more animated and interactive, like the on-screen display, or would you prefer a more traditional web page to just get work done?

I'm a sucker for a slick UI, but not at the expense of functionality. It's more important to me to have full access to all the features of the web utility than to have it look better. There are some things that are hard to get looking right in an on-screen GUI that work well on a web page. Part of that has to do with the mouse and keyboard interface vs a remote or even AMX/Crestron panel, but some of that has to do with the amount of information you put on-screen with the expectation of a 2 foot vs 10 foot interface (sorry for the MS Media Center terminology ). If push came to shove, I'd take the current interface over something slicker if it meant that some functions would have to be dropped or would be more cumbersome to access (because of 2' vs 10'). I know that there is probably a push to have all interfaces be as close as possible for consistencies sake, but some advanced users like myself like the style we have now and see many ways to add upon the functionality that is already there.

- Do you wish you could use the web utility more (add more features to it) or less (move features to the on-screen display)?

Definitely more. As stated above, there are some more advanced functions that just don't translate all that well to an on-screen GUI. I'd hate to see consistent interface desires trump functionality. Not every user wants or will be able to work with more advanced features (scripting is a prime example). Such features are therefore better suited to be in the web utility.

One thing that you could do is to create separate "basic" and "advanced" web utility pages. This would be a segmentation of the home page and wouldn't impact the installer page. The basic page would then look much more like the on-screen interface while the advanced page is more like what we have now. The basic page might be an evolution of the current Control Panels with more advanced features for Collections, Favorite Scenes, Mix Albums, etc. Some things like scripting would be omitted as they might be a little too tough to replicate in a slicker UI. Advanced users and installers could still make use of the advanced page in a form close to what we have now. That style is quicker for those who know how to utilize it.

Thanks for your participation Lawrence and hopefully we can find a happy medium to satisfy both basic as well as advanced users.

Jeff

 

[Alex@AVG]

Hello, this is a nice idea, Lawrence

I'm tech support for Kaleidescape users in France and Benelux, I will translate this document in french and forward it to our customer database.

On my side, I don't think I'm very representative of the Kaleidescape common use since I spent most of my time in the installer menu

However, I will spent some times in the user menu within the next days and give you my personal feedback.

Alexandre

 

[regwood]

When creating or sharing favorites, it would be helpful if the chapter number showed along with the elapsed time when a movie is paused, fast forwarded or rewound.

Being able to create (or just edit maybe) a favorite, non-linearly, would be great also. Maybe an option when you open the favorite on your computer. Instead of just being able to title the scene, you could pick the exact end (or begining) by changing the play time (eg. from 1:10:56 seconds to 1:10:01 seconds). I love my favorites, even though every scene is probably 5-10 seconds too long.

"This is a nice to have."