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The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

uxdesign.cc

241–250 of 490 posts

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

#241
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…

Do you know Teams also adds white noise globally?

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

#242
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add insult, the notifications are a separate window on macOS. So when you use cmd+tab to switch _to_ Teams, you might end up in that notifications window. Even when there are no Teams notifications, that window remains. This is very painful when in full-screen mode, as cmd-tabbing to Teams simply doesn’t work. I’m on the beta where you can switch to native notifications, but they’ve only implemented that (poorly)…

It makes me wonder how they manage to get it so wrong. Is there nobody at Microsoft who uses teams that they can ask for UX feedback? Does all the user feedback they collect go straight to the bin?

It's a competition among the sub-groups to see who can inflict the most damage...

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

#243
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had network issues the other day and a few minutes into the meeting we realised my audio stream was delayed by a whole minute. There was no indication on the Teams UI this was happening. I'd hear a question about a window I'd already closed on screen share, type a response, and they got it a minute after asking. As someone who uses Discord at home, Teams is pain.

LOL. I wonder where that data was physically sitting for a whole minute.

Paging Animats... Animats to the HN courtesy desk...

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

#244
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…

Also nice that it controls playback of other apps. Intended as a nice feature: your listening to music, accept incoming call, music stops, hang up, music starts again. Sounds nice, in practise it starts randomly music during calls. Or you stopped music for hours, accepting a low level call and raise your volume,hang up and get blasted away by your loud music starting to play.

Or my favorite. Accepting a call, manually pausing music using media keys, call ends, I try to resume my music using media keys, resume Teams ringing sound instead. Thanks teams, I really wanted to here that tune again!

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

#245

I would like to nominate the macbook pro touchbar I use it every single day and hate it every single day.

I've used it multiple times a day for over a year, and I still need to consciously think about what I'm pressing when I use it. Ridiculous.

Oh, the number of times I've absentmindedly adjusted the screen brightness when I meant to adjust volume or vice versa...

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

#246
post #207
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was grading an online exam yesterday. You're lucky. This program used an SPA. The core workflow is hidden and split over multiple "tabs". Tabs include: question, given answer, score awarded. That's right, none of those are available simultaneously. Yes, 70% of its window goes unused when full-screen. Going through all students can be done in (at least) two ways. In the first, you can press a button to proceed to th…

If it's an SPA, can't it be greasemonkey'd to display things properly?

I had a hiccup pressing a button once. Was kicked back to initial screen and the student was "locked" - which requires an admin to reset.

So: maybe, but the back end is probably too flakey. Official recommendation is to use IE for grading and only one grader may be logged in at any time.

Really, fire is too good for this mess.

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

#247
post #85

The volume controls in Tuxguitar are legitimately worse than some posted here. To adjust the volume of a track, you choose "View > Show Instruments" and then the unlabeled first circle in each row is the volume "knob". It's a "knob" because it is basically a circle with a dot with the 6-o'clock position indicating 0 and the 3 o'clock position indicating maximum. To adjust it, you click and hold (with no visual feedba…

That's commonplace in audio production programs/plugins actually.

Was going to say. It saves screen space - should you need to save screen space - while allowing fine control. A slider would take much more screen area.

This is a bigger issue on synth VSTs that have tens or hundreds of controls. When screen resolutions were smaller it was a toss-up between hybrid vertical/rotational scrolling, horizontal/vertical window scrollbars to get the controls to appear at all, and multipage UIs.

Some designs, like Korg's MS20 VST, had all of the above.

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

#248
post #33

Clippy may be a joke, but my phone actually does this (and yours likely does too). In principle, if my headphone volume was actually loud enough to damage my hearing, I'd like to be told about it, but a given reality is the volume setting doesn't produce the same loudness with different headphones, which usually results in an inconvenience when my headphones aren't actually very loud.

My iPhone (SE 1st gen, so I still have a headphone jack...) is constantly nagging at me that my average headphone volume is too loud; the reality is that when I use the headphone output I'm nearly always in my car using its line input, which requires me to max out the volume on the phone to get reasonable volume out of the amp.

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

#249
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…

They ... abandoned knobs. I have a car from their previous generation and the whole UI can be controlled with knobs and button presses, in addition to touching the screen.

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

#250
post #221

I think the worst volume control is on Mac OS Big Sur... the missing Volume Icon In Menu Bar. A second close is the volume controls on the MacBook Pro touch bar. Fairly subpar (push-and-hold).

You do know you can just drag the volume icon from the control center back to the menu bar, right? And the Touch Bar volume controls are probably the nicest UX on a Touch Bar, since it allows to change the volume quite fast with a simple drag & slide.

How is anyone supposed to work out that you can drag a volume icon from the control center to the menu bar?

It's nice that you can. But as clear affordances go, that really isn't one.

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