Only show notifications when using media keys

[John Macdonald]

Currently, BeatBox shows a notification whenever the song changes. This is not necessary, and even bad. Notifications can become a bit like modals—when you abuse them, people begin to ignore them. Notifications need to be effective ways to alert the user of something, and if they're getting trained to ignore them, notifications begin to lose their usefulness. Scott has pointed out that these notifications are a good way of finding out what the current song's name is if you've forgotten it. However, you could simply open the sound indicator to do the same thing. Also, some users have pointed out that can be distracting before you get used to it and that it seems quite pointless. (Question #165326)

Notifications are most useful when you're changing songs with your media keys. You may not recognize a song until a few seconds in, and with a notification you know you're at the song you want. Users would be looking at the notification to confirm they've reached a good song, so it won't be ignored.

[Evan Nelson (ean5533)]

Brilliant compromise, in my opinion. It allows for distraction-free background music but also gives you information when you're explicitly interacting with the media player. Seems like the best of all worlds.

[Scott Ringwelski (sgringwe)]

This is already how it is. Notifications are only shown when the media player is not focused/showing.

[Evan Nelson (ean5533)]

Scott, I think John and I are on a different page than you. (John, forgive me if I'm misinterpreting what you were saying)

The problem John is outlining is that those notifications occur too often, and that they should be reduced. His suggestion (that I agree with) is to only have the notifications show when the user actively changes the song via keyboard shortcuts or keyboard media keys. This way the user isn't seeing a distracting song notification every time one song ends and another one begins.

[Scott Ringwelski (sgringwe)]

This could be something I'm willing to do (not that I agree). I'm going to add Dan to the bug to see what he thinks.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

Hmm, My initial gut reaction was "uh... what?" but after thinking about it for a little bit, I think I agree. The primary use of the notifications is probably going to be to see what track you are on when you're skipping through songs so you know whether to stay or skip. In that case it is only really useful when you're using media keys to skip.

[John Macdonald (jxtreme42)]

Okay, sorry if I was a bit confusing. I'm saying that notifications are used alot in Beatbox, and really should only be used when they're useful. I make a comparison to modal usage, which people are probably familiar with. In BeatBox, they're useful only when I'm skipping with my keys and want to know what track I landed on. Does that make sense?

[Scott Ringwelski (sgringwe)]

Finished. I also decided to show the notification if the user presses play (not pause) with the media keys while beatbox is not showing. The idea behind this is the user might be working on their computer while lsitening to music, and have to leave for a half an hour or so. When they return, they can press play and the song notification will show. this feature only happens when they are gone for over a minute (a minute passes between hitting pause and hitting play)