Preview: Interface Updates

[arlo]

I'm working on BandHelper 4.0 for iOS / 3.0 for Android, and you can now preview and comment on some of the upcoming changes. This thread focuses on design and usability updates and is only available in the iOS version so far. To try it, install the latest version and turn on Help > Utilities > Test New Interface. Then you can see:

- Updated form design. On the song, event, contact and action edit pages, the fields that focus on user-entered content are in a section at the top of the page. The field display is different here; instead of a label on the left and a text box on the right, the label is smaller, and the editable area is under it and spans the width of the page. The goal is to make these pages more appealing to someone mainly viewing and not editing it, and to reduce the feeling of working in a database.

- Resizable fields. You can now resize multi-line text fields on the edit pages by dragging the handle at the bottom of each field. These sizes will be saved and reloaded automatically.

- Auto-complete text fields. The Artist field on song edit pages and the custom fields on all edit pages now include an auto-complete function that will fill in matching entries from previous pages. You can click the displayed match to accept it, or ignore it to decline it.

- Relocated preview buttons. Some buttons that were previously on the list pages have been moved to the edit pages. For example, you can now preview recordings from the song edit pages instead of the song list. Other buttons have been copied to the edit pages in addition to the list pages. For example, you can now initiate a phone call from the Contacts list or the contact edit page. This change makes more room for titles in the lists, and should eliminate the need for Settings > Appearance > Song List Buttons (but some customization of the song details in the list would be useful instead).

- Event preview popup. Clicking an event on the Schedule > Calendar page opens the basic event info in a popup window; you can then click the More button to view the complete event info.

- Updated fonts. The Sans-Serif font option for lyrics has been changed from Helvetica to the system San Francisco font, and the Casual font has been replaced with Courier. This means the lyrics font options now consist of a serif and sans-serif proportional option, and a serif and sans-serif monospace option.

- In-app help. You can now long-press any of the labels on the Settings pages, or the buttons in the bottom toolbar, to see a popup explaining what it does. To see where in-app help is available, you can turn on Help > Show Hint Icons. I haven't decided whether to show the icons by default for all users, or only for new users, or for nobody. But the help text is available whether or not the icons are showing. As with the website documentation, I expect the help text will only be available in English.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

[JerryK]

Forms - I don't use event/contact forms.  I may simply be resistant to change (I don't think so) but I prefer the normal format.
Fonts - I only use monospace for reasons of using chords.
Auto-complete - nice touch.  Anything saving re-typing is good.
Help - also nice, certainly for new folks.

[zaphod_69]

Hi Arlo, I wish you'd soon implement a function that also displays chords in the right place above the lyrics with the system font "San Francisco" (sans-serif).

[arlo]

That's on my wish list and I'll add a vote for you. Unfortunately it would not be easy to implement and I'm afraid it would be pretty fussy when combined with the resizing, chord coloring, transposing and other functions that are a part of the lyrics display.

[zaphod_69]

Hi Arlo,
thank you very much for the quick answer. I am aware that it is very complicated to implement this feature. 
But I'm also surprised that not more people have asked for it, because I think it's a very important function. Other songbooks already have this feature. 
I hope you will find time to implement soon.
Thanks in advance,
zaphod_69

[arlo]

In today's app releases, ChordPro positioning with proportional fonts is finally supported.