One thing that bothers me is unnecessary clicking. For instance, on the default genres list, all the genres seem to get put side by side. I have to swipe through my genres despite only having about 20 genres. It is because each genre starts with a different letter, leading to a sort of goofy looking genre list. When you pinch out of the genre list, it looks really nice, a very pretty compact list. Sadly, you can't set the pinched out view to default, and when you click on a genre in the zoomed out list, it doesn't open the genre, but instead goes back to the genre list. I would like to see an option to make the pinched out view the default so we never have to look at the uglier genre list. Here is how the two lists look now, you choose which is more functional/nice looking:
The home screen seems to be lacking. I love the ability to change the background color, and I also like that I can access 3-4 of my playlists from the homescreen. There are a lot of useless buttons on the left however, so I hope that in the future we are able to disable some of these buttons that we do not use via the settings menu. This could make room for 1-3 more rows of playlists. Also, I would really like to see a search button added to the home screen. In MM for the PC, the search box is so readily available. In MM8, the search is there but it is hiding. You have to swipe from the right and click the magnifier. Most apps, such as the Microsoft Store app, Hulu, and Netflix all have search icons in the top right of the apps home page. Also, many apps allow users to start typing to search. I recommend MM8 does this too. Here is what it would look like:
I noticed on my surface RT when I am browsing artists only 2 rows appear of artists. A lot of black space takes up the rest of the page. If the artwork scaled slightly according to available space on each individuals computer, this could easily accommodate 3 rows. That does sound like it may increase loading times though, and I would rather have 2 rows and fast loading times than visa versa, so this is not a big deal. I drew what it would look like below.
Lastly, I love customizing the color in MM8. That is an excellent feature that few windows 8 apps have, and a huge selling point. However, the color selection is very limited. If a color that is too light is chosen, the home page is unreadable (white text on chosen color). If a color too dark is chosen, the artists/genre lists are unreadable (chosen color on black background). I highlighted this dark color on black in my image, which you pretty much cannot even see the text at all because it is such a dark purple. Some consistency would be helpful: Should we choose a color that contrasts against black or white? I recommend not putting our chosen color against a black background anywhere in the app, that way we can choose medium to darker colors.
I think we all know that the user interface for MM8 will never be as customizable as MMW is. Since MM8 is more about consuming music and less about organizing it, I would love to see the MM8 user interface focused on making it quick and easy to find the media we want. What kind of changes to the UI would you all like to see?