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List: kde-usability
Subject: Re: [KDE Usability] KMix UI orientation
From: Aurélien_Gâteau <agateau () kde ! org>
Date: 2012-05-22 9:29:32
Message-ID: 5564132.IEZWkms5Iv () trinity
[Download RAW message or body]
Le jeudi 17 mai 2012 14:50:59 Trever Fischer a =E9crit :
> I'm starting to have a look at a lot of the papercuts in kdemultimedia,
> trying to polish up all the little details that bother me.
> =
> Here's my first question:
> =
> Does KMix really need vertical slider orientation?
> =
> How many people really feel that having two different layouts is a major
> feature?
> =
> I've taken some screenshots of the two layouts, for reference:
> =
> Tray popup with horizontal: http://i.imgur.com/QrOuO.png
> Tray popup with veritcal: http://i.imgur.com/vwY8Q.png
> =
> Mixer dialog with horizontal: http://i.imgur.com/PTMLt.png
> Mixer dialog with vertical: http://i.imgur.com/8AuMS.png
I very much prefer the horizontal layout as well, for few reasons:
- It is more common. Except for Dragon volume slider (which should be chang=
ed =
IMO), where else in KDE apps can you find vertical sliders?
- It gives more room for labels. This is becoming more and more important =
because we are moving from sliders which controls obscure hardware features =
(PCM, Master...) to application-specific sliders (Trever screenshots illust=
rate =
this already, but let me add another one: =
http://wstaw.org/m/2012/05/22/kmix.png )
Sure the current layout suffers some issues:
#1. Lack of clear indication of which way is louder
#2. Mute on the right side
#1 Can easily be fixed by adding volume level icons on the left and right o=
f =
the sliders, similar to Mac OS X volume slider, as can be seen here: =
http://worldwide.bose.com/productsupport/en/assets/images/articles/digital_=
music_systems/computer_mm_mac_volume_control.jpg
We even already have them! (audio-volume-low and audio-volume-high)
#2 This could be fixed if the horizontal layout were closer to the vertical =
layout on this topic. Right now it looks like this:
Channel title
( i ) ------o---------------------- [M]
(where "( i )" is the channel icon and "[M]" is the mute button)
It could be changed to something like this:
( i ) Channel title
[M] ------o--------------------------
Alternatively, the mute button can be turned in a regular checkbox and eith=
er =
stay on the right like the Mac OS volume slider, or moved below the slider, =
thanks to the wide availability of vertical space.
So I would suggest fixing those simple issues and going for horizontal by =
default.
Dropping the vertical mode at all would be nicer (having worked a bit on KM=
ix =
layout in the past I can say it is not just changing the orientation of the =
layout), but we should keep a way out for change-resistant users, at least =
for =
now.
Aur=E9lien
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