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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: [KDE Usability] KMix UI orientation
From:       Harald Sitter <sitter () kde ! org>
Date:       2012-05-21 13:51:08
Message-ID: CAEc+18Hrb9Hit2-efRYgDfK3JqCzd15LSgYLpM2y952iZBZPQw () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 7:09 PM, Eike Hein <hein@kde.org> wrote:
> Personally, I prefer horizontal orientation, but this is definitely
> a matter of preference and there are vocal users who prefer vertical.

Never mind vocal users :P

I really think this is a matter of style rather than usability. From
where I am standing neither orientation provides better affordance
than the other, particularly since there were 80's equalizers with
horizontal sliders too ;). In fact, we could also have circular
sliders, I guess those were/are particularly common on radio sets and
speakers which would actually make them the best choice from a
usability POV.

Knowing our options I'll immediately dismiss the circular thing again,
because it is insanely impractical due to the two dimensional display
and the fact that you'd turn the knob with two fingers :P

And for the other two one's pro is the other's con and vice versa
(hard to scroll slider horizontally vs. easy vertically - requires
vertical scroll with many entries vs. requires horizontal scroll ...),
which is why I think this is more of an artistic issue. And from an
artistic angle horizontal is the one and only option here (given the
fact that you often have longish texts and many sliders so that
scrolling the actual dialog becomes necessary).

The popup though is a different story. It pops out of a panel, so it
actually should follow the orientation of the panel. If you have a
horizontal panel then the popup should be horizontal, if you have a
vertical one, it should be vertical.

Lastly. FWIW, I think scrolling sliders is a paradigm breaker as you
scroll to change your view port, which is not what goes on when
scrolling a slider :(

HS
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