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This is something we will be looking into in the not to distant future.
D
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Please, no more views than are absolutely necessary. This is one place that many skinners go wrong. Don't just add them because you can. Stick to as few as possible that work well 99% of the time. Too many and both usability and design unity suffer.
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I agree with the above that "more is not better" but for movies (especially large collections) the "wall" view is clutch
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ohh .. and for a wall view .. vertical i think is better vs horizontal scroll since you can scroll faster since you get more on the screen at one time
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Usability suffers simply because it's harder for a new user to find the view they want to stick with. Choice is not necessarily a good thing. In many cases it can be detrimental.
3 great views are much better than 8 views, five of which are mediocre.
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Michal, I suggest you go watch the video again, since Barry Schwartz actually lists all of the reasons NOT to give a large number of choices.
The problem with giving too much choice is that it requires the end user to understand all of the options they're given. Additionally, in a programming environment it adds to the workload of the developer and tends to increase the number of bugs while marginally adding to the value of the product. Finally, having more choices tends to water down the quality compared to a few choices.
An example: image formats for TV series banners, since I have lots of experience with it. The more image formats I add to my site, the more choice people have. However, it also results in more bandwidth, more confusion about the format requirements, more confusion in the API, and less quality in the banners themselves.
IMHO this applies to skins as well. Give a person a dozen choices and they'll be confused and overwhelmed since there's no way they will know which is the best possible one for that section unless they play around with each one for a period of time. Alternatively you can give them a couple of very distinct options and they'll have a much easier time deciding which one works for them.
Barry Schwartz says this in his speech as well by saying that the more choices people have, the less likely they are to make a choice (choice paralysis). He also says that people are generally less satisfied when they make a choice from a large set since that person tends to wonder what they're missing in the other choices.
So, 3-4 excellent views ARE better than 6-7, as long as those 3-4 are distinct and cover the most common use situations.
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Congratulations Team Razorfish. Slick, professional and now my default skin. Even my wife is impressed - and that is saying something! Few individuals would spend so much of their own spare time to create something for the wider community and expect nothing back in return. Thank you for your efforts and soak up the praise - you deserve it.
It seems to me that the bar has been raised to dizzying heights!
). I would have thought that the sort of people who switch skins looking for what they want will have a generally good idea of which of the views they would prefer. I agree however that more views increases the burden on the developers and potentially may reduce quality. Judging by what they've done so far I don't think that will have a problem managing to find a balance so it's probably a little early for us to be debating this.
