[linux-audio-dev] Knobs / widget design + some OT stuff

[Pete Bessman]

At Mon, 28 Jun 2004 01:22:05 +0200,
Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> 
> "... whenever we invite someone into the news studio, he has to make
> his point in 12 seconds. If I know he can't, I will not even
> consider him." Why not ? "Beacause it's bad TV, and our market share
> will go down. Our viewers just don't want to concentrate on any
> issue, they want to be entertained. Anyway that's what our
> advertisers tell us: we want the largest segment, which are the
> people who don't want to think or do any other mental effort."
> 
> This is just one of the many things I learned over the last years,
> and which all point into the same direction: the main social
> dividing line in most western societies these days is one that
> reflects education levels. It determines lifestyle, consumption
> patterns and political preferences, and it is much more influential
> than financial status or the old social classes.

Your insinuation that those with a higher level of education aren't
susceptible to the 12 second attention span problem (for the record,
you and I at least agree on the fact that it *is* a problem) doesn't
hold water.  At least in the United State of Maryland, most
institutions of higher learning that offer an on-campus living
solution also offer a cable TV package (MTV included); if there was no
demand, there would be no supply.

Your point is an anecdotal non-sequitur anyway, although it does
reinforce opinions of your elitism (well, at least my own).

> More and more, as an 'intellectual' I find myself in a position that
> comes down to this: either you budge and dumb down, or you'll be
> excluded. This is just one step from what happened during the Nazi
> regime, the 'Cultural Revolution', or the Pol Pot government, where
> everyone who dared to think was just eleminated.

http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/g/Godwin_s_Law.html

> Going back to our original point: if a user is too lazy to read a
> manual, I can't be bothered with his problem. And if someone
> proclaims that aversion to reading documentation is 'normal', I will
> disagree, and now you all know why.

That's a straw man.  The original point was something to the effect of
"a volume knob which can only be operated after studying a manual is
an indication that the UI designer is a failure," although my
rendition is probably more caustic than the original.

-Pete

www.gazuga.net