Offer three options as checkboxes (allow for multi-selection), not radio buttons (single selection) for the user to chose from:
- Show “In Progress”
- Show “Played\Watched”
- Show “Unplayed\Unwatched”
Any combination of zero, one, two, or three can be selected.
Reasons for each option:
Zero - users have already been curating their library of movies and shows and know what they have seen or not, so turn off all visual indicators to keep the display clean.
One - They may want to only show items that are In Progress so they know, at a quick visual glance, at what point they are in a given show/movie versus just having it in the ‘Continue Watching’ section.
Two - Users may want to see just what they haven’t played yet as well as the current In Progress of anything they are watching, but don’t want the visual indicator of what has already been watched.
Three - Some users may want all three pieces of information on the screen at all times.
These settings are already stored on the system, so I wouldn’t think it would be terribly difficult to allow for a toggle between which of these settings are shown or not shown.
Personally, I really do not like the ‘green checkbox’ for viewed items and greatly prefer the yellow triangle for unwatched items. My use of Plex is to move through what I haven’t seen previously in a visual sense, but still retaining the ability to see what is all on my server so I can look for movies and shows in series where there are elements I haven’t seen.
Example: I’ve seen movies one, two, and three in a series, but haven’t seen four so movie four would have the yellow triangle. But as I look at movie four, I realize I don’t remember much of movie three, so I want to go back and watch that first. If I were to have a filter applied for ‘unwatched’, I may not come to this realization about movie three as easily.
