CDDB Lookup Helper Interface

Sunday, 2005-05-15; 03:33:00


Reader feedback?

So, yeah. I guess I'm kind of immersed in CDDB Lookup Helper's development. If you have any interest in this application, please provide feedback on the following questions:

1. I need some suggestions for a better name. "CDDB Lookup Helper" is functional, but lame. It's not accurate either, now that album art is a feature, and does not come from the CDDB.

2. I'm trying to improve the interface with regards to album art. I have a few goals with this.

A: make the size of the album art in the window useful so that you can verify if it's correct or not
B: to convey which album art is associated with which section (i.e.: which is already in iTunes and which comes from Walmart.com)
C: to not make the Approve Song Info window too large, which means to use all available space
D: to make it clear which album art is better (i.e.: is bigger in physical size).

In that vein, here are three interfaces for CDDBLH, in chronological order of creation:

CDDB Lookup Helper Interface Variation A

CDDB Lookup Helper Interface Variation B

CDDB Lookup Helper Interface Variation C


The first one fails miserably in goal A, is kind of bad in C since it wastes space, but is great in goals B and D.
The second is better in A but still not great, is still good in B and D, and remains about the same in C (the physical size of the window is bigger, but the space is more fully used up.
The third is much better in A so as to be fairly good, improves in C (both in physical window size and amount of window used), but is much worse in B and D.

I'm inclined to go with the third version of the interface. You can still see the size of the two album arts by looking at the pixel widths for each section, but the interface makes it look like the proposed art is always physically bigger. But is it obvious which is the proposed artwork and which is the existing artwork?

Also note that the third interface uses up pretty much all the space that the window occupies, in contrast to the first and second interfaces which waste a lot of space where the approve, next, and previous buttons are. Also note that the second and third interfaces are significantly bigger in vertical height but shorter horizontally. Which is more valuable... horizontal or vertical screen real estate?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.


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