Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

uxdesign.cc

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 490 posts

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

#151

Post by audiometry »

mianos wrote: post #48
stefan_ wrote: post #36

I think the worst UI is simply the Teams one, because it presents as an app volume control but then simply controls the global device volume . Fuck off, you are not the only app running. But that comes second to the microphone gain control, which Teams similarly exerts unilateral control over - only this time through an automated algorithm that for some microphone types just ends up muting them entirely. It's wild, y…

Teams is the reference for bad UI. Paste a code block. Select a word in the code block. Copy and you get the whole block copied not the selected word. I could write a page of the issues like this. Maybe it would not be so bad if you only used Teams but when you use slack at the same time it is like someone is wacking you in the back of the head every few minutes.

stupid teams chat doesn't even have a 'reply with quote' but yeah, it's got lots of edgy emoticons and gifs.... stupid.

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

#152

Post by shinymark »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #78
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.

On every iPad I've seen, only the lower 3-4 (of 16) steps are normal indoor range. Even the 1st step is too loud at night. I need half-steps. Is this due to linear vs logarithmic scaling? Or are people throwing wild parties where the iPad needs to fill a room with sound?

I agree - when trying to watch something next to a sleeping partner even 1 step above muted is too loud. Annoying. I often watch Netflix muted and read subtitles because of this. I guess I need headphones.

But I do really think a volume one half of the current lowest would be useful for me.

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

#153

Post by howenterprisey »

ajklsdhfniuwehf wrote: post #130

Those are still all better than mobile phones that have a dozen "volumes" and when you press the volume up when a video is just starting you might get lucky and lower the media volume, or you might have missed it for one microsecond and now you are stuck on ring or alarm or whatever volume while the video plays.

Those never have enough increments for me. I'm always on the quietest end of the slider, and when I want to go quieter I always end up accidentally muting the sound. I have to resort to dragging the slider with my finger - I don't know what I would do without that ability.

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

#154

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

gumby wrote: post #122
abram wrote: post #102

I find Apple's suggestion to use Siri to control the volume on the AirPods Pro [0] to be worse than some of the ideas on that page. The idea of having a spoken conversation in public in which I must request a volume change via a branded AI (and then repeat that request multiple times if necessary to reach my desired volume) just feels humiliating. [0] "To change the volume, say 'Hey, Siri,' then say something like 'T…

One of the teens in the house has discovered you can say “Hey Alexa shut the fuck up”. I’m afraid the joyless Siri just ignores you when you say that.

I actually really like that feature - it works with any _strongly-worded_ “stop” command: Alexa detects user annoyance and swiftly stops whatever it’s doing with the minimum of back-and-forth.

The best part is that whereas with most commands, if Alexa has any doubt about what you said or you weren’t clear it always asks you to clarify or disambiguate, even various stop/pause/volume-down/mute commands - but when spoken with an angry tone or with an f-bomb or two then she defaults to stopping without question, even if she didn’t hear you clearly.

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

#155

Post by abakker »

audiometry wrote: post #151
mianos wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teams is the reference for bad UI. Paste a code block. Select a word in the code block. Copy and you get the whole block copied not the selected word. I could write a page of the issues like this. Maybe it would not be so bad if you only used Teams but when you use slack at the same time it is like someone is wacking you in the back of the head every few minutes.

stupid teams chat doesn't even have a 'reply with quote' but yeah, it's got lots of edgy emoticons and gifs.... stupid.

Amazingly, the mobile app version does!

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

#156

Post by etaioinshrdlu »

srswtf123 wrote: post #84
mianos wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teams is the reference for bad UI. Paste a code block. Select a word in the code block. Copy and you get the whole block copied not the selected word. I could write a page of the issues like this. Maybe it would not be so bad if you only used Teams but when you use slack at the same time it is like someone is wacking you in the back of the head every few minutes.

Ever used Lotus Notes? http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/lotus.htm

The "Enter Password" at the bottom of that page is simply great.

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

#157

Post by vxNsr »

iambateman wrote: post #96
stefan_ wrote: post #36

I think the worst UI is simply the Teams one, because it presents as an app volume control but then simply controls the global device volume . Fuck off, you are not the only app running. But that comes second to the microphone gain control, which Teams similarly exerts unilateral control over - only this time through an automated algorithm that for some microphone types just ends up muting them entirely. It's wild, y…

Just in case an MS engineer is reading these Teams gripes… On Mac, Teams does not honor system-level Do not Disturb. So when I turn off notifications during a presentation at work and my friend sends me snarky comments about our boss…

If it makes you feel any better they use their own custom notifications in windows as well and it suffers all the same issues (doesn’t respect dnd, gets covered by/covers native notifications, etc)

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

#158

Post by geenew »

abram wrote: post #102

I find Apple's suggestion to use Siri to control the volume on the AirPods Pro [0] to be worse than some of the ideas on that page. The idea of having a spoken conversation in public in which I must request a volume change via a branded AI (and then repeat that request multiple times if necessary to reach my desired volume) just feels humiliating. [0] "To change the volume, say 'Hey, Siri,' then say something like 'T…

I discovered you can say ‘hey Siri volume N’ where N is the volume percentage. 70 usually works out for me for normal listening.

Not that I disagree with your main point; I refuse to use Siri in public, like you say, it’s humiliating.

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

#159

Post by gabesk »

fomine3 wrote: post #34
jiggawatts wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is in the same category of error as most programmers thinking that sRGB uses a linear light model. They try to do arithmetic like blending or blurring on the raw image data this inevitably does the wrong thing. Similarly, most non-AAA game engines ignore the sRGB tone curve and treat all inputs and outputs as if they were linear, which results in unexpected brightness shifts in textures. Up until very recently,…

Could you provide good documentation about such thing?

Charles Poynton has good references on this. His website is very 90s, but his books (a la Digital Video and HD) are the best clearly explained introduction to color science and gamma vs linear light coding that I've ever read.

https://www.poynton.ca/Poynton-color.html

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

#160

Post by cygned »

mortenjorck wrote: post #107
iambateman wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case an MS engineer is reading these Teams gripes… On Mac, Teams does not honor system-level Do not Disturb. So when I turn off notifications during a presentation at work and my friend sends me snarky comments about our boss…

Teams’ notifications on Mac are an ongoing debacle. Because they are Microsoft’s own implementation, rather than using the system API, not only do they not respect DND, they also helpfully get lost behind other notifications that come in from properly designed applications. According to the Microsoft admin updates I’m subscribed to, native notifications on Mac have been in a beta channel for months, with a full rollo…

They also get lost when you're in fullscreen. If I wouldn't get them on my watch, I'd basically be unreachable on Teams.
Post reply on HN