unity-design team mailing list archive

[Chow Loong Jin <hyperair@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 03,May,2010 10:17 PM, Martín Soto wrote:
> 
> 
> On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Chow Loong Jin <hyperair@xxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:hyperair@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     I think listening to music while chatting is not rare at all. I do
>     it, and many
>     other people I know do the same. And considering how much noise was
>     made over
>     the one-application-rules-the-sound-card bug that existed prior to
>     ALSA's dmix
>     coming into the picture, I think it's not rare at all to have more
>     than one
>     application playing sounds at the same time.
> 
> 
> Some people do listen to music while talking to someone else on the
> Internet phone. I do it myself  on occasion, but I don't think this is
> so common, though. The common case for simultaneous sound playback is a
> lot more related with applications such as IM clients playing short
> sounds while something else is playing in the background. People want to
> listen to music and still be able to tell when an IM arrives.
> 
>     I'd be exceptionally bothered if my sound was automatically paused
>     in order to
>     play notification sounds which appear every time someone sends me an
>     instant
>     message (think rapid succession from someone who types fast, which
>     is not at all
>     uncommon these days).
> 
> 
> I guess almost everyone would be bothered in this case. This is the
> reason why I wrote:
> 
>> The only "normal" situation
>> I can think about where it makes sense to have sound mixed or
>> superimposed is when notification sounds ("you have new mail") play on
>> top of other sources. For this case, the volume of notifications should
>> be made so that they're audible over the sound that is currently
>> playing, which is something that probably can be achieved automatically
>> anyway.
> 
> That is, notification-type sounds should be mixed with whatever else
> that is playing. I think, however, that their volume can probably be
> selected automatically in such a way that they are heard on top of the
> background. This way we don't force people to fiddle with another volume
> slider in order to hear their notifications.

Sorry, I read that as "soften the music to let notification sounds be heard" and
my response was meant to be phrased the same way. Choosing a default
notification volume that is higher than other things should do the job well
enough. Anything else is likely to annoy the user, especially audiophiles among
other users who get touchy when their music is disturbed.

>  
> 
>     As for playing videos, keep in mind that not all videos have sound.
>     When I watch
>     a video that has no sound, I keep my music playing. When I watch a
>     video that
>     has no useful sound (stupid background music that annoys me), I mute
>     my browser
>     and keep my music playing. Such videos are pretty common on Youtube.
> 
> 
> I bet most people won't bother to mute the video. Since most youtube
> videos aren't longer than two or three minutes, they'll just endure the
> music if they have to. So this is probably a rather advanced use case,
> but I may be wrong.

Youtube has a queue. You can chain up hours long worth of videos using that.

>> So, for example, if you're playing background music and want to watch
>> that video you just got from your pal over IM, you'll probably pause the
>> music. And if someone calls you over Skype when you're watching the
>> video, you'll pause it before taking the call. Given that this is the
>> case, a single volume slider should suffice.
> 
>     I have a habit of playing music (softly) while talking to friends on
>     Skype due
>     to my multitasking habits, and due to the fact that I can't really
>     function
>     properly without music playing.
> 
> 
> Although I thing, as I said above, that this is not so common, it's
> still an interesting use case. If I'm listening to music and a call
> arrives, for example, I'd rather have the music paused automatically as
> soon as I take the call.

There's a difference between "not so common," and "non-existent." I understand
your concern that my use cases may be uncommon, but what you appeared to be
doing earlier was saying something like "well most people would do X, so let's
assume that everyone acts the same way and remove all other use cases."

-- 
Kind regards,
Chow Loong Jin

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