Improvements to delete individual bookmarked stations

[davidhedlund]

RadioDroid 0.5.1

In Bookmarks:

Delete button

• Replace the Star icon with a waste basket icon (like the one seen at the top used to delete all stations)
• Add a confirm message like

Are you sure you want to remove this station?: Yes/No -- It's easy to remove stations by mistake if you hit the wrong icon (example Share is placed next to it).

• You can swipe the station left to remove it, after that "undo" button will appear below for short time. -- make this popup appear when you remove the station by clicking on on the button to remove it.

Undo message

You can swipe the station left to remove it, after that "undo" button will appear below for short time. The "Undo" message disappears after 3 seconds, I suggest that you delay the time.

[werman]

You can swipe the station left to remove it, after that "undo" button will appear below for short time.

[davidhedlund]

@werman Thanks, I added a suggested improvement for that too.

[nekohayo]

From what I've seen with version 0.86 (which is maybe the result of me inheriting default settings from previous versions of the year or two before), the usability problems with the existing "star" icon button in the Favorites listview boil down to these aspects:

• It is positioned in an awkward place, overlaid on top of the cover thumbnail and the redundant* "click trend button" stock-market-like arrow line (that goes up, down, or straight) with the same color. In that cramped area, it is not easy to notice that the star icon is actually an interactive button.

• The star shape, especially in that cramped place, has poor contrast and is a minuscule target that I am unable to hit with my fingers; even if I try a dozen times I am usually unable to remove a station from the favorites by trying to tap that overlaid star icon.

It would be much clearer if you moved it to the expanding toolbar (the one that occurs when you tap the v on the right) by default, with a predictable and reliable UX. For everything else¹, there's the fullscreened station detail view where you can also toggle the favorite status.

Here are my precise interaction design recommendations:

1. Maybe move the > (play in external play) button to the left (instead of right-aligned)
2. Move the "remove favorite" action to be a "trash" button (or colored ★ star) into the Favorites view's list item's expandable toolbar (the one that shows up when tapping the v revealer button on the right), instead.
   Maybe as the right-most item in that toolbar if you have done the change proposed in step 1.
3. Remove the "click-favorites" star from the cover thumbnail overlay in favorites view (we're already in favorites view, we know they are favorites!), and remove the "click-favorites" setting's effect over the favorites view, it doesn't really make sense (particularly while inside the Favorites listview).
4. Consider making the swipe-to-unfavorite/delete gesture an opt-in setting by default, as it is too dangerous and easy to trigger (especially when manipulating the app on a bike or in a moving vehicle). This might help indirectly solve issue Make Favorites, History Items Harder to Delete/Trash #1191 in the process.

When unfavoriting (unstarring) an item from within the Favorites view, it could show an undoable action for 5-8 seconds (or until another deletion happens) as an overlay (like when swiping), in case the user has hit that star button accidentally.

---

Why remove the setting entirely in step 3? Because the less settings there are for users to shoot themselves in the foot, the easier your app is to test and maintain. See this video for a very short mathematical demonstration of the problem.

• Also related:
  • In listviews, station trend icon should be moved to a subtoolbar instead of overlaying the cover icon #1203
  • In station details fullscreen view, changing the station's favorite / unfavorited status does not update the star icon button state to empty (hollow) or full filled #1204
• ¹: also consider… in Favorites grid view, make tapping a station icon simply open its details page, where the user can then tap the play button. That could allow you to get rid of yet another redundant setting. Nobody is going to die if they have to do two taps to start playback from the gridview (especially since they can't necessarily identify the station easily if it doesn't have a thumbnail).

[Wikinaut]

I am very happy with the current design which was developed to allow very easy and quick bookmarking, compared to other Internet Radio apps and programs it was designed for RadioDroid to avoid click orgies.

[nekohayo]

You can already quickly and easily bookmark stations from the browsing/searching search results. My proposal to clean up the favorites view takes nothing away from that. Removing stations is a much less frequent action, but it needs to be clear, reliable and easy.

I am not against "click thumbnail to make it a favorite" in the browsing/search results if that's what it could be limited to. Just not in the favorites view.