Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Windows specific questions, problems.

Do you think qBittorrent's UI needs considerable improvement?

Yes, it needs a complete overhaul.
40
36%
No, just minor fixes.
58
53%
No, keep it as is.
12
11%
 
Total votes: 110

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Nemo
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Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Nemo »

Wow.. New user, first post.. Well uhm.. Welcome?

With all respect; you don't have to discuss if you don't want to. We will keep discussing without you too, even if there has passed almost 2 years by now. Thats why forums are made for right? We are not a big company with many devs that is working on qBittorrent and this things takes time if you like it or not. You can't change the UI if the program isn't working or has bugs in it, these things needs to be done first. Its not like changing qBittorrent only, don't forget Qt compatibility and such too.

Back to the subject; If it was so easy it was already done by now but there are other priorities than changing the UI, even if it seems so simple in your eyes. Its always easy to write it down like ''do it'' like you're ordering him (..?) than to actually do and implent it. Sure it has not the best icons at the moment (good enough for now if you ask me and many others) but the main question is does it work like it should? Yes, I don't see the problem here. It will probably be changed when the top priorities are done.

qBittorrent has made a very huge step forward in those 2 years but the UI has stayed almost the same. You can use your own Windows theme maybe to change it a little bit and thats it. The fact is that everyone wants a more modern look and feel, some more than the other, also me. But first to do that qBittorrent needs to work for everyone and thats what keeps these things a bit behind. qBittorrent v3.1.5 was more a bugfix release if you saw the changelog, so you get the idea what is done. It also depends on what sledge thinks or when wants to work on it (Dayman, or others) and don't forget that he has a private life too. I personally always appreciate everyone who works on qBittorrent and know how to wait patiently. I don't like if someone comes and says ''2 years and still discussing'' like he has done nothing in the meantime.
ciaobaby

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by ciaobaby »

Fortunately (unlike several) the emphasis for qBitTorrent tends to be improving and maintaining  the functionality rather than the aesthetics
Last edited by ciaobaby on Fri Jan 31, 2014 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Calidude

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Calidude »

[quote="ostaxin"]
Wow. Almost two years and you're still discussing this. I saw two proposals (changing icons) in this thread that are miles better than the current one. But no, let's keep discussing. I don't get it. I didn't read every post but is there really that much resistance to change the icons (specially the horrible ones under "Torrents")?
[/quote]
It's not like qBittorrent has a paid team behind it. Somebody with UI skills has to contribute, so do your part and get the word out so more people will come in, be interested in qBittorrent and hopefully bring us a UI that makes everybody happy.
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Peter
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Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Peter »

I don't want to sound rude, but:
- The GUI uses Qt. Someone with Qt needs to work on this.
- This is an open-source project, with no income and no profit. We have no profit for more users, therefore we have no paid devs either. So there is no resource we could allocate anywhere. People work on what they want.
- Qt masters are rare. Someone blessed with design skills, and be a Qt master? Even more rare.
- It's not like the current active devs don't know Qt, of course they know. But they work on more important things.

If you want to change this, learn Qt and C++, and start modifying the GUI, submit a merge request, and that's it. :)

Ps.: I have nothing against the UI, I find it pleasing/easy/simple. But you can't please everyone.
ciaobaby

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by ciaobaby »

But you can't please everyone.
I get the impression that people who complain about the "spartan" look of qBT are coming from the Vuze, uTorrent/BitTorrent kind of client, where the 'pretty' UI style is done for an entirely different purpose than that of having a usable interface to the client downloader
Molasses

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Molasses »

ciaobaby wrote:
But you can't please everyone.
I get the impression that people who complain about the "spartan" look of qBT are coming from the Vuze, uTorrent/BitTorrent kind of client, where the 'pretty' UI style is done for an entirely different purpose than that of having a usable interface to the client downloader
That's a bit unfair. If people have forgone those popular clients, then I'd say they've already prioritised performance over looks. Wanting a better interface doesn't mean people want things to be like Vuze etc.

I don't think much needs to be changed, I like the interface design, the main problem is the colour scheme. Why paused torrents are red, I don't know. Red is an emergency colour, and it's not easy on the eye to be staring at a sea of red if you have a lot of torrents. Paused should be a darker grey imo. Stalled should be red.

If the colour scheme was adapted and made more intuitive, that would be a huge improvement.
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Nemo
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Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Nemo »

No. I am considering of changing the text colors for v3.2.x but I'll not provide a way for the user to choose his own. I consider the later, bloat.
PS: Seeding possibly will become blue/light blue.
http://qbforums.shiki.hu/index.php/topic,2459.msg9967.html#msg9967

Its being worked on.
sledgehammer_999
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Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by sledgehammer_999 »

[quote="Molasses"]
I don't think much needs to be changed, I like the interface design, the main problem is the colour scheme. Why paused torrents are red, I don't know. Red is an emergency colour, and it's not easy on the eye to be staring at a sea of red if you have a lot of torrents. Paused should be a darker grey imo. Stalled should be red.

If the colour scheme was adapted and made more intuitive, that would be a huge improvement.
[/quote]

http://qbforums.shiki.hu/index.php/topi ... ml#msg7037

EDIT: Plus what Nemo pointed to too.
ciaobaby

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by ciaobaby »

Why is it 'unfair'? Taken out of context it may seem that way, but the reason that BT clients such as qBT and KTorrent have 'basic' interfaces is that they are not "owned" by anybody, so have no call for being  'branded' in corporate advertising colours.
fusk

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by fusk »

I don't really care about looks, i want rock solid & fast, everything else is just a surplus of resources.
Calidude

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Calidude »

ciaobaby wrote:
But you can't please everyone.
I get the impression that people who complain about the "spartan" look of qBT are coming from the Vuze, uTorrent/BitTorrent kind of client, where the 'pretty' UI style is done for an entirely different purpose than that of having a usable interface to the client downloader
A better UI would make qBittorrent even more usable, as intuitive design is supposed to. Heck, even the text color looks bad. As the guy before me said, the red pause color looks more like the torrent is messed up. Red should be the stalled/error color. Seeding should be something like Blue instead of Yellow, like you are giving out good vibes to people by sending them data, etc, and the Yellow just looks hard to read on a White Background.

I'm going to say something now that is going to piss some people off, but there it goes: qBitorrent's current UI drives away Windows users who would adopt it but think it looks like an amateurish torrent client that will simply not work as well as a polished-looking torrent client like uTorrent. The only reason that Windows users are finally moving to qBitorrent is because uTorrent is serving up ads and looking shady, but most people look at qBittorrent and turn back to uTorrent as soon as they see the qBitorrent UI

There, I said it. People value looks, and if you want to bring in users, your UI has to be up to a certain standard, which qBitorrent currently falls below. It doesn't have to be the most beautiful software in the world, it just has to look like say, uTorrent 1.8.3 did. Yes, I know, people are going to get mad at me and say "UI doesn't matter, what matters is function" but people who say that probably don't leave their house very often. The average person, even a lot of tech-inclined people, want their software to look good, no matter what anybody says, and delaying a UI refresh for qBittorrent is just keeping qBittorrent's potential userbase away from this great client.

And no, I'm not demanding that work be done right this instant on a free project like qBittorrent. I'm aware that nobody is getting paid here and its a volunteer project. I am simply saying the truth of the matter, that UI has a significant impact upon user adopt.
Last edited by Calidude on Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sledgehammer_999
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Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by sledgehammer_999 »

Calilude your opinion is noted. However, I'll go on a limb and say that qbt ATM needs more devs than users. Especially users who are amateurish and need constant help. But with amateurs may come more experienced ones that want to help them. I dunno.

At least qbt does its basic job pretty good atm regardless of its appearance.
Calidude

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by Calidude »

[quote="sledgehammer_999"]
Calilude your opinion is noted. However, I'll go on a limb and say that qbt ATM needs more devs than users. Especially users who are amateurish and need constant help. But with amateurs may come more experienced ones that want to help them. I dunno.

At least qbt does its basic job pretty good atm regardless of its appearance.
[/quote]
Lol well, torrent users aren't really known for having a large group of smart users, especially on Windows. You should read comments on some torrent sites, yikes. But yes, even if there's a flood of users that will cry and demand they have their hand held, there's also more experienced users who will tag along with them, as well as people with dev experience. Basically, the more users the better, especially for a project that is open-source, and an easy way to get more users is to have a prettier-looking client.
Last edited by Calidude on Sun Mar 16, 2014 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ciaobaby

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by ciaobaby »

I would like Windows users to actually take a good hard look at the M$ ethos of form over function and see where it has led them.

The OS is bloated with all manner of 'features' that probably 95% of users do not know exist and would never use if they did know they were there. Each new version requires faster hardware to run it on, and of course some versions now require everybody to be buying "Touch screens" before it can be used efficiently.

Then there is M$ Office ....
ciaobaby

Re: Will any work be done on improving qBittorrent's UI?

Post by ciaobaby »

Simple improvement to the Options dialogue:

Watched Folders: Swap around the columns in the list 'widget'

Because a HUGE column with just a checkbox and a fixed width column that is 1/8th the size of the holder for the file name is a little 'unusual'.
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