ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

["Bill R. WASHBURN" <dygituljunky@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bill R. WASHBURN
On Feb 26, 2013 11:16 AM, "Bruno Girin" <brunogirin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Posting back to the list as this was sent to me only :-) Comments below.

Oops, thanks.

> On 26/02/13 15:17, Bill R. WASHBURN wrote:

>> On-the-fly adjustments to the sound level could be performed through the
volume keys.

> Yes but one of the design principles for Ubuntu is that it should not
need to rely on physical buttons. They should be used if they are available
of course.

The move in this sector away from any buttons at all is a poor design
decision. Volume, push to talk, camera, power, and maybe a lock slider
should be physical keys on a phone or tablet. Power is super obvious but
the user should be able to operate volume, camera, and push-to-talk without
removing one's gloves (which generally means not interacting with the
screen).

The additional benefit to a dedicated camera key is speed of access to the
camera app. I've missed a number of great pictures of my daughter because I
had to PIN unlock my phone and navigate to the camera app before I could
use it.

I should be able to find and raise/lower the volume without removing the
phone from my ear,  my eyes from the road, or the device from my pocket,
depending on the scenario. On-screen volume in place of physical volume on
a device meant to be mobile can be dangerous. Volume should also be
available via the interface (when the device is across the room in TV mode
for example).

Similar to the camera, a dedicated push to talk key gives the user the
ability to use the feature with a single gloved hand and, like the volume
keys, allows the feature to be used without the user having to look at the
screen.

> Having to configure each application individually sounds very clunky to
me! Installing a new app should be easy. This is why I like the N9's
implementation: a generic volume setting that applies to all apps + a ring
profile with associated volume (when in ringing mode) that applies to all
alerts. And the volume buttons control the generic volume settings, not the
ring.
>
> Should we go for full profile support like BlackBerry, I would argue that
there should be sensible defaults so that a new application can be
installed without any additional configuration.

Agreed. And the blackberry I had did have default configurations for new
apps which were fairly accurate for the default profiles; it was custom
profiles that had more configuration. And there might have been a way to
set up a default settings for av new profile.

An "apply these settings to all profiles" would be a way to quickly apply
the same ringtone/notification sound for a given application across all
profiles.

Having the highly configurable options available doesn't mean that it has
to be horrendous to use although Ubuntu desktop doesn't have a great track
record in this area, IMHO. (A good example of a setting with many options
but still easy to use is the regional formats settings screen in Windows;
compare to Ubuntu desktop's regional format settings in which you have to
pick a preconfigured option by country or edit text files make the change).

Bill R. WASHBURN