On Wed, 2004-06-09 at 21:03, Tim Hockin wrote: > On Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 08:39:36PM -0400, Dave Robillard wrote: > > > How about velocity sensitive knobs like OhmForce plugs use. Uggh. > > > I think radial adjustment is the clearest, most obvious way for a knob > > to move.. it is a knob after all. A newbie sitting down at the machine > > isn't going to try to drag it vertically, they're going to try to "turn" > > Actually, I think vertical is most obvious, based on my watching people. > Radial is confusing to people. Popping up a little vertical meter also > helps indicate that the control moves up and down. > > > Of course, this is leaving out linear coarse adjustment, but can we > > really come up with a way of having all of them? Yet another hotkey :/ > > A global option is the only way to make everyone happy. > > > I really do think radial should be the left-button default though, it's > > just what a knob visually suggest it should do. If linear should be the > > default, the widget itself should be a fader IMHO. Think of the poor > > newbs! :) > > Watch the poor newbs! I'd accept the results of a real usability test. > Get 25 people who have no music software experience or very little, and > give them a set of tasks with two UIs. Ask for results, and watch the > confusion. I'd live with it (though I'll hack in linear control on my own > box, if I lose the bet :) > > Tim
If it's determined that linear is indeed better I think the knob should change into something that makes it clear that up/down linear movement is what's required then. Grabbing a knob and moving the mouse up and down just isn't intuitive, and smashes the hardware metaphor to tiny little bits. -DR-
