unity-design team mailing list archive

[Martín Soto <donsoto@xxxxxxxxx>]

2010/5/5 Alex Launi <alex.launi@xxxxxxxxx>

> I think the take home message of this is that there are two distinct types
> of sound streams. I'm going to use the analogy we've been using in
> notifications- Synchronous and Asynchronous.
>
>    - Synchronous streams are those that are user initiated. Banshee,
>    Empathy Voice/Video chat, Youtube videos, etc. Streams that come from
>    explicitly user initiated actions.
>    - Asynchronous streams are those that are *not* user initiated, and are
>    triggered by environment events. Incoming IM sounds, alert noises.
>
> Asynchronous streams should be handled by the system, but we should design
> a means of allowing users to adjust the volume of synchronous streams.
>

Although I generally agree, my take on this is that it's better to classify
sound sources based on different criteria. My suggestion is to use the
following categories:

   1. Notification: sounds used to provide feedback for user actions or to
   notify about environmental events. These are short sounds, not expected to
   play for long periods of time. Also, listening to these sounds is never the
   user's direct purpose.
   2. Media playback: sound streams resulting from playing music or videos,
   also game sound tracks. These can play for long periods of time and can be
   played in the background while other tasks are being performed. They are
   often high-quality. Listening to these is desired by the user.
   3. Conversation: streams from VOIP applications. These can play for long
   periods of time. Since a conversation is ongoing, they normally require
   constant user attention. Their sound quality can be poor.

Volume for Type 1 should definitely be handled automatically whenever
possible. People don't want to fiddle with this, they just want to hear
their notifications. Types 2 and three require manual adjustment, and
probably can be handled uniformly for the most part. I'm making the
distinction mainly because of the differences in interaction, namely,
background vs. foreground.

Based on the previous comments, I'm also tempted to add a fourth category:

Sound spam: unexpected/undesired sound streams coming from Web pages.

Of course, muting these automatically would be ideal, but can be very
difficult given their often malicious nature. Any ideas in this direction
are greatly appreciated.

Martín