unity-design team mailing list archive

[Diego Moya <turingt@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 4 May 2010 17:18, Jan-Christoph Borchardt  wrote:
> On 4 May 2010 20:20, Diego Moya wrote:
>> I preferred the old way where
>> you used a single precise click to reduce a deafening sound, instead
>> of having to wheel down during a couple seconds to achieve an
>> acceptable level. This critical case is not well supported by the
>> current volume control.
>
> How often does this critical case happen to users that it would
> justify having a sound slider present at all times? It is just one
> click more.

The always present slider is also useful for the common case of
adjusting volume (you know, the primary goal). A one-centimeter-wide
slider (smaller than the Me menu) is enough for most volume adjustment
needs with one single click or one click+drag.

The current hide slider is not "just one click more", it also requires
one third click to dismiss the floating slider. Compare "1
click+release" vs "click+release, click+drag+release, click+release"
to see the real interaction complexity being traded for 50 horizontal
pixels.

There's also the problem of several consecutive volume adjustments,
for example while setting up a comfortable level for a new radio song.
In addition to the fine volume tuning, the user has to decide wether
to dismiss the floating slider or not at the end of each adjustment. I
know it bothers me to no end for quite a frequent task.


> This is far too complex for normal users and a normal use case.

Is far simpler than the "one slider per application" proposed at the
beginning of the thread.

This design can be made a little simpler by eliminating the tri-status
button. I've posted it to the Brainstorm as solution #6:

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/24627/



>
> If you go out and monitor a ton of users, how many will know that a
> Firefox sound control also controls Flash apps inside the browser?
> They will just use the slider provided by the Flash app because that’s
> what is nearby.

And they'll be bitten later when they try to adjust volume up using
the global control and it only goes up to half volume. Not so critical
for Flash videos, a serious error when its the media player the one
with dimmed sound.



> On 4 May 2010 22:31, Alex Launi wrote:
>> What's insufficient about the current Sound Preferences UI? I almost never
>> have to adjust application volumes, is this where we should be focusing our
>> energy?

Per-application absolute volume is not needed. Relative sound
preferences so that one application doesn't step over another one, is
needed. See use cases by Martin - the most important is getting a call
while listening to music. There should be a way to reduce music volume
without having to hunt for the Media player window.