7 ms·

I've seen casual users get confounded by that aspect of the color wheel more often than not. Basically every casual user who I've seen try a color wheel for the

I've seen casual users get confounded by that aspect of the color wheel more often than not. Basically every casual user who I've seen try a color wheel for the first time makes that same mistake and gets a little confused and frustrated. I wonder if we can generalize a UI antipattern: - A control that the user can change - but which has no effect due to the setting of another control - but does nothing to indicate that state This is one of the top reasons audio synthesizers (real and virtual) can be frustrating for even very expert users. You get caught in a situation where you are adjusting a control over and over, trying to perceive the effect, only to realize that it is doing nothing unless you change some other control that may be located far away (visually/physically/menu-wise/tabs/categories/etc) from the thing you are changing. I find the whole discussion fascinating.

kstenerud 10y ago
My biggest pet peeve is greyed out buttons. No explanation as to why you can't push the button. Just the inactive control, sitting there, taunting you. Macs are especially bad in this regard. Would be nice if at least a mouse over would pop up an explanation for how to reactivate it...
- marssaxman 10y ago
  Curiously enough, an attempted solution for this problem was one of Apple's flagship features in Macintosh System 7, way back in 1991. It all ended up being more work than it was worth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_help https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_help
romwell 10y ago
Your comment made me think about how to improve a synthesizer design. Even with a modular synthesizer, where in the natural state every component is tweakable, but has no effect (before you make any connections), there could be a way to provide feedback: e.g. have a light bulb whose intensity is somehow proportional to the effect the module has on the main out. Or have lighted cables that would allow to trace the signal from oscillators to the output (e.g. with a lighted dot that runs the length of the path).

kstenerud 10y ago

My biggest pet peeve is greyed out buttons. No explanation as to why you can't push the button. Just the inactive control, sitting there, taunting you. Macs are especially bad in this regard. Would be nice if at least a mouse over would pop up an explanation for how to reactivate it...

marssaxman 10y ago
Curiously enough, an attempted solution for this problem was one of Apple's flagship features in Macintosh System 7, way back in 1991. It all ended up being more work than it was worth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_help https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_help

romwell 10y ago

Your comment made me think about how to improve a synthesizer design. Even with a modular synthesizer, where in the natural state every component is tweakable, but has no effect (before you make any connections), there could be a way to provide feedback: e.g. have a light bulb whose intensity is somehow proportional to the effect the module has on the main out. Or have lighted cables that would allow to trace the signal from oscillators to the output (e.g. with a lighted dot that runs the length of the path).