Songpocket 2 design: right info, right places

(See also: Introducing Songpocket 2)

Songpocket 1 repeated some info across album and song lists.

I changed that in Songpocket 2. Now…

This is big. Why not show titles and artists alongside artwork like most apps do?

I asked that myself. Here’s a prototype I rejected:

Titles and artists are usually redundant with artwork, and I surprisingly found that including them as text wasn’t especially useful.

Meanwhile, eliminating them made me admire the artwork more. To paraphrase Marie Kondo: discard what isn’t essential, so that you’ll focus on what is.

In Songpocket 2, I enjoy album covers more than I do anywhere else. It’s because they go edge-to-edge, and because moving between them is so easy.

Now, I also tried going too far, because otherwise, I hadn’t actually found the limit. So I tried removing all text from album lists:

Yeah, I flew too close to the sun here.

Without release dates, album lists did become annoying to use. I found myself repeatedly opening and closing albums to see what they were. It made me stupid.

But wait: what’s special about release dates? Why do those feel right alongside artwork, but not titles or artists?

Context.

Don’t blame me for hiding titles and artists; I’m actually respecting artists’ decisions! Flipping through a record crate, you only see what the artists included on each cover. Slapping labels everywhere would ruin the minimalism of certain albums—rude.

But while artists can hide their name and title, they can’t hide the date they released an album (assuming no time travel!).

Release dates add useful context: they help you sort albums, and they highlight important events and time gaps. Clearly, The Beatles took LSD in 1965 between August and December.

So that’s the right balance of including useful info while respecting art.

In theory, I’ve just rearranged some text and images, but in use, this produces an exceptionally focused experience. Try it out!

Songpocket – App Store