Specific Channel guide "fixes"

[tsetem]

We just got FiOS after 5 years of Comcast.  And our first (and so far) continuing impression of the guide is that's it's way too busy and complex to use, and it needs a drastic simplification, or at least options to make it simpler and easier on the eyes. These comments are based on v1.9 of the UI on the new Cisco boxes.

I haven't really seen a "complete" list of fixes, but I've seen a lot of complaints.  So I'll try to make some more specific fixes as to make the UI a bit cleaner and easier to use.  Hey, I'm a SW Engineer, I'm used to bugs 😉

• More/different views of the Channel information.  I can see how the current set of guides have their uses for someone who wants to find every detail about a show.  I'm not one of those people.  So I'd propose a "simple" Mini guide, and "simple" Half screen guide.
• "Simple" mini guide.  This I would like to see as analogous to the mini guide Comcast has.  Yes, I think they got something right there.  That guide has three channels showing the next 1.5 hours of shows or so.  The guide should be at the bottom 1/3 of the screen, with the top part showing the upper 2/3 of the currently selected channel.
• "Simple" Half screen guide.  I Like the level of detail the "Full screen" guide provides, except that the picture showing the currently selected channel is too small.  If a half screen guide can be crafted to show the same amount of detail with a larger picture
• Wasted space in the cells.  When looking at the Full screen guide, the font size of each show looks like it could be several points larger, and vertically centered in the cell.  There is a bit of wasted space to the top of each show.  Larger fonts should help with the readability.  I'm 36 and it's not as easy to read on a 55" TV as it seems it could be.
• Allow disabling of the channel badges.  While the badges do add a bit of "wow" and slick and polish to it.  If you're looking to use the guide soley for information, you want to make it as dense with information as you can.  Bad/useless graphics take away from that information density.
• In the Mini view, allow disabling of the 'rating','new','classification' badges or make them inline with the text.  It feels like those badges have a dedicated row to them.  The left part of those badges feel like wasted space.  Making it inline will allow all of the text and details to flow together, reducing wasted whitespace and increasing density.
• Reduce the roundness of the cells.  The roundness is again fancy/nice.  But it results in wasted space between the cells forcing the font size to be smaller.
• Allow customization of the color schemes.  The current color scheme doesn't bother me, but it seems like the "right" thing to do based on comments from other users.

Hopefully the guide is based on some sort of HTML scheme with CSS so changing specific elements requires minimal tweaks.  If not, I hope the GUI Toolkit in use allows for customization and what not.

Which does lead to another thought.  If the browser is HTML based, maybe allow for User created schemes?  Create a "safe" repository that allows adept users to submit their own schemes for review, and publish those out via the box if approved by Verizon.  Like Mozilla's themes.

Any other specific fixes to the UI?

[nascar]

You sound like a web designer.  I doubt CSS is involved but I do not know.  I would expect it to be some proprietary code and from what I have seen as a tester, to do HD, it must be limited visually.  But yes I agree with you that there should be more options since what you like may nit be what I like so to speak.  So more options would allow more power users like us to customize the guide to how we like it.

[bui]

Please, please change the guide. It is impossible to read except from very close. Used to have RCN and never had a problem reading it. It was simple and clear. Specially hard to read when creating or erasing recordings everything is in miniature.

Thanks. I hope this is the right spot to post a comment.

[paulmperry]

Hi,

How can I change the channel guide looks.