Rdio 2.0 Design | Hacker News Reader

Rdio 2.0 Design

theindustry.cc

48 pointsjarederondu30 comments

As a longtime Rdio loyalist, I'm really digging it. It seems to take fewer taps to get to the different sections and many of the discovery sections ("New Releases" and "Heavy Rotation") finally infinite scroll in iOS, which really makes discovery easier.

Plus it's remarkably pretty, which I appreciate. Nice fonts, subtle color variations and a few transparent UI layers give it a nice texture. A lot of hard core music lovers like vinyl because the attention to packaging invokes a certain reverence for the art - to some extent I think Rdio accomplish this as much as they can on a 3.5 inch screen.

Interestingly, Rdio 2.0 is built with C# and MonoTouch, sharing significant amounts of code with the Android client. https://twitter.com/migueldeicaza/status/273487637292130304

For some reason, I would expect this to improve the quality of their Windows Phone app, which is nigh-unusable. Despite how much I love Rdio (and opted to pay for the family plan), I'm considering switching away because of this.

The question is, what would you switch to? Spotify is AWOL (at least on WP8), Rdio's app is terrible, etc.

My predicament exactly. I have heard good things about Xbox Music, but I haven't given it a look yet.

Xbox Music is nice if you like the built in music+videos interface for browsing music, playlists, etc. Good selection, fairly easy to search for and download music. The only issue is that since I'm on a Mac, I have no way to listen to that music when I'm on my laptop.

The discovery of this fact was actually the reason I finally took a long hard look at Monotouch. It's a great validation for the Mono team.

I'm still sitting it out but if WP starts getting any traction then that will probably be the last push I need to really dig in. There isn't a day that goes by when I'm coding in Obj-C or Java and don't wish for some C# feature.

The radical new all-white design of the desktop app and their refusal to address the outcry it caused among their users was the main reason I switched to Spotify after happily using their service for years.

If they're "doubling down" on this style in the mobile app now I guess I made the right choice. It's a shame - rdio is a great service in a lot of other ways.

I'm looking for an alternative to both, after having left Spotify after their Facebook dealings and because Rdio has no clue what they're doing when it comes to design, UX, their library and their suggestions. On top of that, their feedback form uses your real first and last name when you make a complaint and doesn't allow an alias.

When I read the first half of that sentence, I thought it was going to end with "...was the main reason I kept using Rdio".

I like that they stick to their guns :)

Try Grooveshark.

Wait… so you stopped using rdio because you didn't like the design, but you chose spotify? ARE YOU BLIND MAN?

Spotify isn't beautiful but at least it's not like staring right into the sun.

Not only is Spotify ugly, it's nearly unusable in my opinion. Today I was trying to navigate to a friend's playlist and was unable to do so from the list of my Facebook friends. The web presence for the playlist had no titles, and the first time I tried to open it in the app it failed.

I did not like Rdio's re-design at first, but it has grown on me more than I thought it would.

Rdio wins hands-down for social/sharing features. That's the thing I miss the most. On Spotify I'm pretty much solo.

Spotify's other killer feature is local sync on the laptop. I'm usually dependent on crappy hotel/cafe wifi and Rdio just chokes.

Spotify's killer feature is that you don't have to exit the app and switch to a different app to play music that they don't have.

True, there are also a few of my favorite bands on Spotify that Rdio doesn't have. Rdio seem like they haven't gotten a hold of certain indie labels. I've considered switching to a paid Spotify account just because of that.

Spotify had a terrible Android app for a while, so I switched to Rdio. Then Spotify really improved their app so I considered them again, but now Rdio's app is even better. Hmm...

Also, Rdio has a "family plan" type thing. My wife and I both have accounts, so we get a discount.

I don't take too much advantage of this because I can already find more than enough stuff to listen to there but it can be handy sometimes it's true.

Nearly all monitors have a backlight brightness control.

Most monitor backlights have a threshold at which they can't go any dimmer without being shut off.

He has an opinion.

I'm enjoying the new mobile design.

My initial reaction was not positive, I saw the similarities to the FB mobile app with the swipe right menu and I thought "oh no." But quickly I found it much more intuitive to use than the previous grid layout.

I've modified my opinion that the style of revel navigation is not bad but I previously didn't enjoy it because of Facebook's unresponsive implementation.

The new Rdio design is really nice, but there's really only one thing about Rdio that I find extremely lacking (and it was never their design).

I wish I could play my phone's iTunes music collection from Rdio. The fact is, you can't find everything on Rdio (hello, Led Zeppelin?) and it's kind of sucky that you would have to switch to a totally different app for that.

They answered this question in their support forum. Their answer was that your own audio files are not "social" so they do not plan to support them inside Rdio.

That rationale makes me more sad than I can express in a comment. :(

Glad to see the new design go full-circle. It's nice that there's consistency on all fronts. Although, I was surprised by the omission of a volume control interface.

The volume can be controlled with the hardware buttons, but the lack of software controls is really inconvenient. It forces the user to have physical access to the side of the device – this should never be a requirement. Also, iOS remembers the volume state when the headphone jack is plugged in or out. Not having visual feedback of the current volume level leaves the user in the dark. Finally, users expect consistency – the web app and Mac App, and even the official Music app, offer a software volume control. Why should the Rdio mobile app be the exception?

Although it may seem like a petty issue, it contributes to a sub-par listening experience.

I have to respectfully disagree. I think it makes sense to assume that if the user can touch the screen to change the volume, they can touch the side of the device too.

That assumption is enough to justify the move. It also plays into the constraints of a smaller screen, lending more space for the UI bits for which there are no hardware controls.

And on my blackberry I still have the same rdio app for 2 years...

Surprised they made one in the first place.

Rdio - is iOS app used to manage music:

Earlier today, music streaming service Rdio launched a major update of its mobile app for iPhone and iPad, a much-needed redesign for an app that was starting to show its age.

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