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The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

uxdesign.cc

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Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#11

Post by jazzyjackson »

FroshKiller wrote: post #2

This started out entertaining, then I realized that there is no attribution for the designs, and even though there are several links that say things like "the original thread," they are all just links to search results for "volume" on the ProgrammerHumor subreddit.

I am usually one to call out unattributed art, but in this case (IIRC) the ProgrammerHumor community is the source of this trend. You can confirm this by pasting the URL of any of these images to tineye.com and sorting by 'oldest' to check when the image first appeared online, eg:

https://tineye.com/search/af9c3fe10f5da6775143aa30a421733c4f...

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#12

Post by jeffbee »

temporallobe wrote: post #7

Car manufacturers are easily the winners here. If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks.

I can twist mine as much as I like, but the radio comes on instantly and the software that cares about the volume knob being twisted starts about 3 seconds later.

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#13

Post by mananaysiempre »

rectang wrote: post #6

Nearly all volume controls suck because by and large the software world is ignorant of the fact that loudness scales logarithmically. 99.9% of volume controls scale the output linearly.

It’s weird how I nominally know this but never really thought about the implications... How does the hardware world do it? I’d expect the normal way to make a volume control would be to have an adjustable-gain amplifier using the standard opamp circuit somewhere, but those aren’t logarithmic in any resistance you could wire to a knob, are they? (Yes, I am deeply ignorant about electronics.)

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#14

Post by frosted-flakes »

rectang wrote: post #6

Nearly all volume controls suck because by and large the software world is ignorant of the fact that loudness scales logarithmically. 99.9% of volume controls scale the output linearly.

I used to own a BlackBerry 10 phone running BB10 OS. At the time, the dev team accepted suggestions on how to make the OS better, and I suggested they make the volume controls logarithmic instead of linear, and they did! I loved how quiet that phone would go while still remaining clear—I used to listen to audiobooks as I fell asleep at night, and rather than use headphones I would just set the volume to level 1 or 2 and put it on my pillow beside my ear. I haven't been able to do that with any other phone since because the volume doesn't go low enough, or if it does the audio is muddy.

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#16

Post by jeffbee »

The worst one I've seen in actual practice was that of the Openmoko Neo Freerunner, which I saw at a mobile industry tradeshow years ago. The guy, and I must stress this the type of nerd who thought Openmoko was pretty good, had to open up a teensy little xterm and run alsamixer before making a call. So bad.

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#17

Post by dbcurtis »

mananaysiempre wrote: post #13
rectang wrote: post #6

Nearly all volume controls suck because by and large the software world is ignorant of the fact that loudness scales logarithmically. 99.9% of volume controls scale the output linearly.

It’s weird how I nominally know this but never really thought about the implications... How does the hardware world do it? I’d expect the normal way to make a volume control would be to have an adjustable-gain amplifier using the standard opamp circuit somewhere, but those aren’t logarithmic in any resistance you could wire to a knob, are they? (Yes, I am deeply ignorant about electronics.)

Probably at least as far back as WW II we had linear taper pots and audio taper pots. Bam. Done.

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#18

Post by blamazon »

enumjorge wrote: post #10

This article seems to be a regurgitation of a thread from Reddit.

This case was a “thread storm” instead of a single thread. Each post was a different thread over days/weeks. Challenging to link.

I remember it happening live and the endless up-anteing was amazing! Just when you thought the trend was dead someone would drop a new more elaborate take.

Re: The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

#20

Post by jiggawatts »

jeffbee wrote: post #12
temporallobe wrote: post #7

Car manufacturers are easily the winners here. If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks.

I can twist mine as much as I like, but the radio comes on instantly and the software that cares about the volume knob being twisted starts about 3 seconds later.

I had one that would work, but only if you rotated the knob very slowly. So if you turned the car on and the music was deafening, you had to oh-so-slowly turn down the volume with one hand, while trying to staunch the bleeding from your ears with the other hand.
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