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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)

#191
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, Google Meet, Webex, Zoom -- on Chromium, they all hijack and increase your microphone volume without you knowing. It's infuriating. Just thinking about it pisses me off. You have to have the volume control open and have a live tug-of-war with the app while you're talking. Firefox, either intentionally or unintentionally, does not let Meet do this. I say Meet, because none of the others work on Firefox anyway.…

Krisp, a noise cancelling application, is able to lock the microphone levels. I believe this works even without it on / without the trial timer counting down.

But yes, going to that kinda length to prevent those applications from messing with the gain control is absurd

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

#192
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…

I think Zoom does the same thing on macOS, or at least it did last year.

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

#193
The worst one I’ve experienced is quite simply the Mac. For some reason, the Siri volume is handled differently.

If I accidentally press the Siri button, it does the Siri beep at a hazardous 100%!

Clearly an engineering oversight, but any volume control that could cause hearing loss has to be the worst.

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

#194
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…

Also, please make an M1-native version ASAP. Teams is my second worst app when it comes to memory pressure.

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

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've given me an idea for a volume control - enter a function like x^2 or x^3, which is graphed (on a linear scale). Then pick an x. The y value will be your volume. (The component should reverse any platform specific non-linearity first.)

How would you compute the current volume level? You would have to either store the current x value (which could desync if you change the volume level using the OS volume control), or derive the nearest x from the current y value (which may be possible on PulseAudio, but I haven't checked if you're stuck to the nearest 1% or if you can get a more precise or dB level).

Well if the function you put in is continuous, single-valued , then you can invert it and compute x(y). At the end of the day if the volume is represented as a syscall with a float between 0 and 1 you can play arbitrary games with any bijective function to make setting that number arbitrarily complicated.

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

#196
post #178
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.

> Paste a code block. Select a word in the code block. Copy and you get the whole block copied not the selected word. I feel like this used to work properly until a month or so ago. The worst bug I've seen, and this is also something that only started happening in the last several months, is select messages simply not appearing! So basically I open my computer in the morning and look at Teams and it'll have messages…

I've had that happen on Slack mobile so much I just don't trust it anymore. I always tell people (even if it seems counterintuitive) to email me when things are urgent because very rarely (or not, since I can't tell), it's decided not to show me critical messages.

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

#197
post #79

VW seems to have topped all of these suggestions. Their volume control in the latest car (ID 4, and latest Golf) is dumb as hell, and sheer dangerous. Can't believe mature people in that company thought sliding your finger through to change the volume or temperature, when in a moving car, was a good idea. (even their steering wheel controls are touch sensitive). The Germans are way behind in basic software/ui/ux desi…

Have you ever tried buying a train ticket at one of the vending machines of the „Deutsche Bahn“ while in a hurry to catch your train?

https://youtu.be/TIz6rwIsVHo

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

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Consistency, the one weakness of MS. Like when their own official OneNote app for Windows Phone 8 had fewer features than the Android version.

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

#199

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'm going to pre-emptively defend Tesla here, since they are usually the canonical touch screen example - Tesla cars have a volume thumbwheel on the steering wheel.

What about the passengers? :-)
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