8 Jun
2004
8 Jun
'04
8:12 p.m.
On Tue, 2004-06-08 at 16:50, Ben wrote:
Mine too!
Yes, it's
definitely easier to see the position of a knob
(usually).
The parametric sliders in the JAMin HDEQ are a result of my not
wanting
to use knobs. I think there are probably other ways to replace them
as
well.
Jan
As a rule of thumb, if the parameters are related to each other (i.e.
channel level controls) then it is clearer to use sliders because the
user can compare the relative levels. If the faders are NOT
correlated, then I find it misleading to have them arrayed next to each
other.
Knobs work pretty well in the "uncorrelated" case because your eye
doesn't even try to decipher the relative values. My biggest beef with
knobs is the variety of ways the mouse movement is implemented. Most
software gives you no clue ... vertically? horizontally? radially? ...
and Murphy's law says your first 2 guesses will be wrong. The app
"Soundplay" for BeOS takes a novel approach ... the level is shown as a
knob but when you grab it, a rectangular box appears behind the knob
and you adust it like a fader. This is great because it gives you
visual feedback of which direction(s) to move the knob.
This is exactly the point I was trying to get across. Do something
different. I've been toying lately with the idea of zoomable sliders
when you have too little real estate or pop up sliders that are larger
than their normal graphic representation when you enter their focus
area. The Soundplay approach also seems like a good way to do it. But,
when you're speaking of BeOS, wouldn't that be "took" a novel approach
;-)
Jan