Speaker display layout: how should it look?

[JRpersonal]

Since v1.0.13, STR draws what is playing on the display of every SoundTouch that has one: the 20, 30, Portable and Wave. I picked the layout myself, and I'm sure it can be better. So here is what it looks like today, and I'd love your ideas.

These are real screenshots from a Portable, grabbed straight from the display:

Track and time	Track only
Time only	Paused

What you see:

• Top line: three small bars that move while music plays and lie flat when it is paused, then the station (or playlist), and the time when you switched it on.
• Middle: the artist, smaller and dimmer.
• Bottom: the title, large. Long titles scroll instead of shrinking.
• The panel is 128 x 100 pixels, monochrome with a few grey levels, so there is not much room.

Things I'm unsure about:

1. Should the title or the time be the biggest thing on the screen?
2. Is the artist line useful, or would you rather see the album, or nothing at all?
3. Would you like the station logo or the album cover instead of text? (The panel can only show it as a rough grey picture.)
4. Anything you miss: volume, the key number, the source?

Sketches, photos of other devices you like, or just "I'd move X there" are all welcome. Tell me what you think, whatever speaker you have. Owners of an ST20, ST30 or Wave: a photo of how it looks on your model helps a lot, the screenshots above are from my Portable.

[thommee]

Hi, ST Portable and ST300 user here. Thanks for the update! This looks great.

One thing to consider: when a radio station doesn't provide artist/title information, we currently display "Now playing info goes here."

Since the radio station name is very small and hard to read from more than 1 meter away, it might be worth displaying the station name instead of the placeholder text. That area uses a much larger font, which would make the station name easier to read.

The ability to choose a font / switching between matrix/dotted and stock bose font, maybe more(?) would also be a nice addition as well.

1. Should the title or the time be the biggest thing on the screen?
   station name / top-left text - bigger would be nice
2. Is the artist line useful, or would you rather see the album, or nothing at all?
   artist / title line - very useful
3. Would you like the station logo or the album cover instead of text? (The panel can only show it as a rough grey picture.)
   small station logo would be a nice addition; not necessary
4. Anything you miss: volume, the key number, the source?
   bigger font sizes, brightness adjust / WCAG compliance, font choosing.

As an inspiration: This is how it is implemented on my JBL Radio:
Just after turn on:

...and after a few seconds it changes into:

---

The ability to display custom content on the screen is a huge milestone! It opens the door to designing an on-screen menu, which would be a real game-changer!

[JRpersonal]

Good catch. "Now playing info goes here" is not from STR: it is the default title that station's streaming software sends, and STR took it for a real song. The next release ignores placeholder titles like that, so the station name moves into the big line, as it does for stations that send nothing at all.

A font choice is noted. I'll leave it for later, since the display is small and every font has to be drawn by hand.

[Duayne2001]

This is what it looks like on my ST20.

1. I would leave it as it is but either way would be fine for me.
2. Yes, the artist line is useful to me.
3. Station/playlist name is fine for me. I'd increase the brightness of the station/playlist name, though, to match the artist's brightness as it's currently a bit hard to read for me.
4. Nope

Another thing: Without reading any further, I was initially a bit confused as to what the setting "Time during playback" would do and thought this would show the remaining time of the track or some other duration related information. Maybe "Show clock during playback" would be a bit easier to understand for hasty readers like me ;-) (caveat: English is not my first language)

[JRpersonal]

Thanks for the photo, that's the first one from an ST20! Both points are in for the next release: the station name gets brighter, and the setting is now called "Show clock during playback". You're right, "Time" sounded like track time.