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Chopdog
Chopdog
Renowned Enthusiast I
October 4, 2017

Sonos iOS update is shockingly bad - first impressions

  • October 4, 2017
  • 136 replies
  • 6729 views
The whole My Sonos feature is confusing. The playlists are confusing, and huge graphics which means hardly any playlists can be shown. Was SO hoping the Mac app would get an update, but no such luck. Wait for more reviews before upgrading..... or am I missing something?
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    Alan_6
    Prodigy II
    November 15, 2017
    Every modern navigation system seems to offer choices between large icons, small icons, and various list views. At a minimum, offer the option to show MySonos entries as a list instead of GIANT icons.

    A defining feature of Sonos design is the absolute lack of user choice and customisation. You want more info / detail (eg. access to tagging info, album / track times)? You're out of luck because Sonos want a clean minimalist interface. You want consistent, persistent-by-default / ephemeral-by-default queue behaviour? Well you're stuck with getting whatever mode the play button you clicked on defaults to. You want to decide what gets displayed on your "My Sonos" screen? Well add/delete favourites and watch Sonos pick the first up-to-8 alphabetically in each category, filling the screen with whitespace and forcing yet-another-click to that "fast access". You want a list of all your favourites in one screen? Use the desktop app instead of the mobile one...

    Limiting user choice and keeping things simple is good UI/UX design. Unfortunately, good UI/UX design is rarely found in official Sonos controller apps these days...
    BoredofBalham
    Prodigy II
    November 15, 2017


    2. MySonos needs an list view.
    .

    Thanks,
    Brian

    See All shows a list
    Alan_6
    Prodigy II
    November 18, 2017

    See All shows a list

    Just remember that the desktop app's "Favourites" screen (list of all favourites) is different from the mobile app's "My Sonos->See All" screen, which shows a list of all favourites (or whatever they're called these days) for a specific category only (or not-marked-as-favourite playlists). Because "consistency".
    Alan_6
    Prodigy II
    November 19, 2017
    Quick observation: since latest update, the "now playing" screen has changed slightly, so instead of a back button to get to browse etc. menus, you have to instead slide something up or down (or more likely, pull up iPad notifications). I assume they looked at the iOS music player and thought "yeah, it's poor UX but it's what users expect"...
      Sonos user 29
      Lyricist I
      January 6, 2018
      Amazingly bad App across all devises. Had local audio store bring out a sub to add to system, but when required creating an account, I had them take unit back and forced a credit for their time they tried to invoice. Negative downstream impact is significant. Manager in charge of rollout missed the mark badly. Window to correct situation is closing rapidly and harm inflicted is considerable. Customers and dealers are in open revolt.
        Al the Ear
        Lyricist I
        January 21, 2018
        Jeremy Allison wrote:
        "If I do this now it does not change the room, but reverts to the wrong (original) room. Now I have to tap 'Rooms', add the room I want to listen to - ensuring that it *AND* the previous room are selected, then touch "Done". Then I have to click 'Rooms' again, de-select the previous room - leaving the new room selected, then click 'Done'."
        Same problems with Sonos 8.2/Android 7.0 controller. Disappointing.
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