[linux-audio-dev] Knobs / widget design (radial movement)

[Dave Griffiths]

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 18:54:20 +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2004 at 05:22:55PM +0100, Dave Griffiths wrote:
> > 
> > I like your fan idea Thorsten, but I also think it could work invisibly - ie
> > no need for the transparent overlay. This would take a bit of learning that it
> >  was there to begin with - but transparent graphics like that are expensive
> > (yeah, GPU's I know - but its something to keep in mind) and unnecessary after
> > learing how to use the control.
> 
> Requiring the user to read documentation to learn about 
> functionality he would not even expect is not an option.
> 
> The graphics are not only for giving a hint at this functionality, 
> but also for making clear what is happening. With only the initial 
> (small) slider the user would not have the same feel for the way 
> to value change mapping. The fan and indication line make clear 
> how the mechanism works and help the user to build an exact 
> mental model.

You would be able to get a feel for it by the change in the motion of the
slider control - I think it would become quite apparent once you knew it was
there. I quite like hiding this sort of functionality in user interfaces for
users to discover :)
 
> The partial transparency is meant for allowing to see other sliders
> 
> (or controls) in the background for comparison. But it's less important.

>From (very subjective) experience I find any kind of popping up of elements
annoying - but agree that it's sometimes required. I think it needs to be tried.

> > It would be good to collect a repository of existing GUI elements in
> > commercial packages - dunno what the legal implications would be, but it would
> > be useful.
> 
> Are there so many special widgets out there? I would like to hear  
> about any example someone around here might know.

It's not just the individual widgets that are important but the whole design.

I always post this, but:
http://girl.yowstar.com/app.gif
and of course:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/products/live/live4tour/featurelist/Session-full.gif
are often cited from users as "ground breaking" interfaces (others hate them :] )

I agree that all these designs simply rehash the old themes of interfaces - I
think we should explore this more as free software types, as we can take risks
with this sort of thing (but rarely do).

cheers,

dave