Volumio UX Research Project

Volumio Development Suggest a feature
21

Hi

New user, very impressed with volumio.

What is your current setup (pi1-3, udoo, single/multiple devices, fully hardware device with buttons, touchscreen control, remote webui or mobile, etc)

Currently - Original Pi (256MB & no holes in PCB) some cheap USB device with optical out (48KHz max).
Planned - Pi 3+ Allo DigiOne

Web UI and Android app on tablet.

What are your needs for music discovery (how big is your library, how do you search, do you use/build playlists, do you use streaming/other services, etc),

NAS using DNLA (smb wouldnā€™t work). Currently have a couple of hundred albums loaded.

I also use web radio a lot (1 web radio channel & 1 shoutcast channel at present) Also occasional youtube addon use

What are your needs for music Playback (what are you doing while listening, what info is important to see, etc.)

Sometimes itā€™s running while Iā€™m using the PC, sometimes Iā€™m only listening (Android app)

How do you maintain and share your music (how do you manage your library, how many do you have, how do you share it, ā€¦).

Files ripped with asunder and added to NAS.

I usually search play by album.

For last, I would also like to suggest features you would like to see and especially those you frequently use on other players/platforms, considerations you deem important or specific worries you might have.
If you have concrete examples and links those are useful too.

I would like the ability to add items to the main browse page. e.g. albums folder of my NAS, radio stations.

I would also like it if the play screen artwork display used available album or artist art when it isnā€™t embedded in the file.

And similarly if album artwork is missing, use embedded art or artist.

Also automatic pause on incoming calls, when using the android tablet (itā€™s a phone too) and the ability to play songs on the android device.

A sorting option showing all albums sorted by artist then by name in one level would be nice too.

Thanks

22

Just a quick UX problem, at PC when you hoover over for example album, dynamic symbol with play and more options will appear, however, in mobile view hoover is not supporter, so imho, icos shout be visible all the timeā€¦ its hard to ques where to hit :slight_smile: even harder with black background

edit.: my mobile is IOS based and i use home screen placed shortcut to open it in safari (its faster than app), and as the official app is hybrid its same problem thereā€¦ (Tile view in albums, artists etc, is the problemā€¦ in list view those dots are perfectly visible :wink: )

edit2.: myvolumio.orgā€¦ when connecting remotely, UX design is still the old one :slight_smile: perfectly functional, but old oneā€¦ its brings old memories :smiley: but it confusing once you are using new one :slight_smile:

23

Iā€™ve heard that music can stimulate the brain depending on the style. Iā€™m not sure it really works, but scientists say it does.Music helps me work a lot. Itā€™s a pity that I didnā€™t know about this earlier when I wrote my dissertation. It was a very difficult job and I wrote it for half a year, but in the end my teacher said that it was a bad job. I was in despair and hopelessness, but my friend advised me to get help. He showed me the site and I was very happy. They did everything quickly and inexpensively, and most importantly, efficiently. I used the services of this site https://edubirdie.com/dissertation-help

1 Like
24

I have been using Volumio for 5 years via raspberry pi 4, feeding a USB dac.

Use case: Qobuz only, so paying a premium subscription to use the plugin.

What i would like from volumio:
1- qobuz connect implementation so that i will use Qobuz app for search and playback
2- volumio UI only for system settings, multiroom management and dsp.
What i would love is a proper dsp UI, similar to the one in roon.

Major disappointment so far: UI for Qobuz has never been good and never evolved seriously. AI search never turned out to be useful.

Hope this helps

25

1. Current Setup

  • Main device: Raspberry Pi 3B+ with Allo DigiOne
  • Hardware configuration: SMSL RAW-MDA1 DAC connected via coaxial cable to the Allo DigiOne on the Raspberry Pi. The DAC is connected to a Musical Fidelity M3si amplifier, which powers a pair of Q Acoustics 3050i speakers.
  • Control method: I mostly use the Android app Volumio Control by @Joni_Salminen . I only use the official Volumio app when I need to configure the system; for daily usage, Volumio Control is much more stable and reliable, likely due to being a native Android application.
  • Number of Volumio devices: 1

2. Music Discovery Needs

  • Library size: approximately 2,000 albums / 21,500 tracks
  • Search method: Artist ā†’ Album
  • Playlist usage: I rarely use playlists. When I do, I create them manually.
  • Streaming services: Spotify (Volumio integrated).
  • Other discovery tools: I rarely discover new music through Volumio itself.

3. Music Playback Needs

  • Listening activity: When I use Volumio, itā€™s for attentive listening. I usually listen to entire albums, from start to finish.
  • Information displayed: Itā€™s essential for me to have lyrics available while listening. For this purpose, I rely on the Now Playing plugin by @patrickkfkan.
  • Remote playback: I often use play.volumio.com for remote listening (for example, when Iā€™m driving). This feature is extremely valuable, but currently still quite unstable (see point 5).

4. Music Library Maintenance and Sharing

  • Library management method: My music collection is stored on an externally powered USB hard drive directly connected to the Raspberry Pi. I manage updates via SSH, using FileZilla on a Windows PC thatā€™s on the same local network as the Raspberry Pi running Volumio.
  • Sharing: I do not share my music collection.

5. Desired Features and Considerations

  • Missing features: The display of essential metadata such as the type of release (Album, EP, Single) and the release year is missing. This applies both to the Spotify plugin (as I pointed out HERE) and to the local music collection.

  • Things to improve: In my opinion, there are two key areas that, if addressed, could dramatically improve the overall user experience:

    1. A more solid, fully native Android app. I strongly believe Volumio could build on the excellent work already done by Joni Salminen with the Volumio Control app.
    2. Improved stability and efficiency for the play.volumio.com remote playback service. Iā€™ve already reported the main problems HERE, but to summarize:
    • the stream is extremely sensitive to fluctuations in network stability; issues include playback restarting from the beginning, sudden loss of audio, random skipping to other tracks. Implementing real-time transcoding (similar to what Roon already does) would be a significant improvement, allowing the stream to adapt to the available bandwidth.