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JQuery knobs

anthonyterrien.com

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Re: JQuery knobs

#91

Post by gravitronic »

bodhi wrote: post #54
ender7 wrote: post #28

Nit: it's jarring that when I first mousedown on the control, the value changes. This makes small, incremental changes difficult. Now, if I click on an area of the circle that is far from the pointer, perhaps it should snap. But if I'm close (or on top of the pointer), snapping is undesirable. (compare to a physical knob, which is the thing being emulated here: touching the knob does not change the input, you must to…

This is the crucial annoyance with knobs in a lot of synthesisers (real and virtual). Another problem with them is that it's not obvious how you change the value. Do you drag to the angle you want? Do you drag vertically? Horizontally Which then gets me thinking about direct vs indirect manipulation. Which then distracts me from eating my breakfast.

For my android app DJPad I originally implemented knob control as linear. Move up or right and the value increases, move down or left and the value decreases.

I realized this was a mistake when I gave my app to friends to test and had to stop myself from saying "no! you're moving the knob wrong!" and went back to the drawing board :)

Re: JQuery knobs

#92

Post by eskimoblood »

ender7 wrote: post #28

Nit: it's jarring that when I first mousedown on the control, the value changes. This makes small, incremental changes difficult. Now, if I click on an area of the circle that is far from the pointer, perhaps it should snap. But if I'm close (or on top of the pointer), snapping is undesirable. (compare to a physical knob, which is the thing being emulated here: touching the knob does not change the input, you must to…

Made a pull request that supports arrow keys and mousewheel, which makes it more usable for finer adjustments: https://github.com/aterrien/jQuery-Knob/pull/3/files

Re: JQuery knobs

#93

Post by sltkr »

It seems that the text field accepts arbitrary numbers and then sets the knob to a rather random-looking position. It would make a lot more sense if these values were clipped to the range of the knob.

Re: JQuery knobs

#94

Post by biznickman »

So I first tried this on mobile and that's where this interface because horrific. As my thumb slides over the number toward the top of the circle, I can't see what I've selected.

Re: JQuery knobs

#95

Post by biznickman »

So I first tried this on mobile and that's where this interface becomes horrific. As my thumb slides over the number toward the top of the circle, I can't see what I've selected.

Re: JQuery knobs

#96

Post by junto »

reid wrote: post #81

For comparision, YUI offers a similar widget: Dial. "It's like a real-world, analog volume control dial, but with much finer UI control." http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/dial/

'Dial' is a better word than 'knob'.

In British English the word has a variety of profane implications, inviting childish sniggers from grown men: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=knob

The following are quoted extracts from Roger's Profanisaurus:

"knob 1. n. Penis; prick; John Thomas. 2. v. To shag. As in “I knobbed the arse off her”. knob cheese n. 1. Smeg-ma. 2. Foreskin feta found underneath Kojak’s roll-neck (qv) and around the banjo (qv) or cheese ridge. Also knob Stilton, knob yoghurt, Helmetdale (qv). knob chopper n. Precariously balanced lavatory seat which falls down while you’re having a piss and therefore must be held up manually. knob head . knob end n. Fuck wit; thick head; oaf. knob jockey n. Someone who sits on a door handle whilst the door is in motion for sexual gratification. knob shiner n. Someone who is always prepared to polish a pink oboe (qv)."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Profanisaurus

Re: JQuery knobs

#98

Post by SpiderX »

jonknee wrote: post #45
SpiderX wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even then. Touch interfaces pay no attention to the rotation of a single point, so this would require two fingers, and if even then, you couldn't rotate it more than 180 degrees (try it without lifting up your hand). Scrollbars seem to win as far as touchscreens are concerned. Also, it's dependent on the visual indicator. For example, to set something at 50%, you need to move the visual indicator to the 50% mark.…

Did you even try the demo? I'm using it on an iPad right now and it works great (with one finger even!).

Yes, I'm referring to a 'knob' interface, not this emulation. This is more of a round slider bar.

Re: JQuery knobs

#99

Post by tripzilch »

bodhi wrote: post #54
ender7 wrote: post #28

Nit: it's jarring that when I first mousedown on the control, the value changes. This makes small, incremental changes difficult. Now, if I click on an area of the circle that is far from the pointer, perhaps it should snap. But if I'm close (or on top of the pointer), snapping is undesirable. (compare to a physical knob, which is the thing being emulated here: touching the knob does not change the input, you must to…

This is the crucial annoyance with knobs in a lot of synthesisers (real and virtual). Another problem with them is that it's not obvious how you change the value. Do you drag to the angle you want? Do you drag vertically? Horizontally Which then gets me thinking about direct vs indirect manipulation. Which then distracts me from eating my breakfast.

All popular software-synthesizer knob controls adjust the value by dragging vertically. Including the really well-designed ones like Ableton Live.

Which is why this piece of UI is rather counter-intuitive, and it's obvious the author hasn't ever really used any other software with knob controls.

But even then, I kinda think knob controls aren't very user-friendly either way. I can sort of understand their usage in software synths as a skeuomorph, but that's about it.

Re: JQuery knobs

#100

Post by tripzilch »

tptacek wrote: post #7

Beautiful, but, when is this ever the best UX for a control (outside of sound mixers and sequencers)? (I'm expecting/hoping to get schooled on this.)

It's the wrong UX for sound related apps because in that industry people expect to adjust knob controls by dragging on them up or down so they're going to be confused and decide these knob controls are "wrong".
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