4 ms·

The mobile and web people are probably triggered at this ui lol

asutekku 7y ago
To be fair, knobs as shown in the screenshot are afwul in an usability’s point of view (how do i rotate this, how to fine tune the value), but they convey the information in the context of music plugins really well for the person most likely to use them.
- mirimir 7y ago
  Yes, how does one adjust the setting of a knob? Gestures?
  - mastry 7y ago
    A lot of DAWs use these. With the ones I have used you click the knob and then drag (up to turn the knob left, down for right). It's really horrible actually.
    - mirimir 7y ago
      Ah, so a slider, posing as a knob.
      - royjacobs 7y ago
        Yes, except taking up much less space.
        setr 7y ago
        Which is exactly the purpose of a knob in meatspace too :)
        mirimir 7y ago
        Right. Physically, potentiometers are semicircular sliders. But another advantage of knobs is the ability to turn them, quickly and yet accurately, with thumb and first finger. Some even have push-pull gear reduction, to go between fast and accurate. So you'd think that a GUI knob would use some analogous two-finger twisting gesture. With thumb and first finger.
    - lpellis 7y ago
      I would hope you can also use the mouse wheel by hovering over the knob
      - djowel64 7y ago
        Yes, Photon does that with all continuous UI elements.
  - seertaak 7y ago
    Click/touch + drag.
    - homonculus1 7y ago
      Which is awful and anti-intuitive--far worse than merely non-discoverable. It looks like a familiar control system that a hardware synth would have, but it's actually just a skin on a vertical slider: so it not only forces you to learn a different interaction anyway, but on top of that it lies to you about what it's doing! Skeuomorphism worshippers have a lot of nerve to complain about abstract GUI philosophies when their own cult hasn't eradicated these design atrocities. Gosh, it sure looks pretty though...
      - oscii 7y ago
        I think you may have forgotten to add "imho", otherwise the message looks like its telling an indisputable truth. Audio professionals don't complain about skeuomorphism and philosophies and certainly there're no worshippers, as nobody cares about the new fancy names of mainstream visual styles (btw non-skeuomorphic knobs are quite common, e.g. Ableton). From my own experience, knobs are far superior to sliders in audio applications, as all the adjustments are typically guided by hearing, and sliders' values can jump if you click in a wrong place. This just disturbs the flow. Most of the work with audio software UI is fine tuning parameters, often by a few percent, so relativistic nature of click-drag is perfect for this. Sure, there're relativistic sliders, but they feel rather unintuitive.
- mankeysee 7y ago
  What are knobs used for anyways outside of daws?

To be fair, knobs as shown in the screenshot are afwul in an usability’s point of view (how do i rotate this, how to fine tune the value), but they convey the information in the context of music plugins really well for the person most likely to use them.

mirimir 7y ago
Yes, how does one adjust the setting of a knob? Gestures?
- mastry 7y ago
  A lot of DAWs use these. With the ones I have used you click the knob and then drag (up to turn the knob left, down for right). It's really horrible actually.
  - mirimir 7y ago
    Ah, so a slider, posing as a knob.
    - royjacobs 7y ago
      Yes, except taking up much less space.
      - setr 7y ago
        Which is exactly the purpose of a knob in meatspace too :)
        mirimir 7y ago
        Right. Physically, potentiometers are semicircular sliders. But another advantage of knobs is the ability to turn them, quickly and yet accurately, with thumb and first finger. Some even have push-pull gear reduction, to go between fast and accurate. So you'd think that a GUI knob would use some analogous two-finger twisting gesture. With thumb and first finger.
  - lpellis 7y ago
    I would hope you can also use the mouse wheel by hovering over the knob
    - djowel64 7y ago
      Yes, Photon does that with all continuous UI elements.
- seertaak 7y ago
  Click/touch + drag.
  - homonculus1 7y ago
    Which is awful and anti-intuitive--far worse than merely non-discoverable. It looks like a familiar control system that a hardware synth would have, but it's actually just a skin on a vertical slider: so it not only forces you to learn a different interaction anyway, but on top of that it lies to you about what it's doing! Skeuomorphism worshippers have a lot of nerve to complain about abstract GUI philosophies when their own cult hasn't eradicated these design atrocities. Gosh, it sure looks pretty though...
    - oscii 7y ago
      I think you may have forgotten to add "imho", otherwise the message looks like its telling an indisputable truth. Audio professionals don't complain about skeuomorphism and philosophies and certainly there're no worshippers, as nobody cares about the new fancy names of mainstream visual styles (btw non-skeuomorphic knobs are quite common, e.g. Ableton). From my own experience, knobs are far superior to sliders in audio applications, as all the adjustments are typically guided by hearing, and sliders' values can jump if you click in a wrong place. This just disturbs the flow. Most of the work with audio software UI is fine tuning parameters, often by a few percent, so relativistic nature of click-drag is perfect for this. Sure, there're relativistic sliders, but they feel rather unintuitive.
mankeysee 7y ago
What are knobs used for anyways outside of daws?