3 ms·

That's a really good idea. For reasons I won't trouble anyone with, I've been educating myself with accessibility features on computers/phones/tablets, smart s

That's a really good idea. For reasons I won't trouble anyone with, I've been educating myself with accessibility features on computers/phones/tablets, smart speakers, appliances, etc. It's funny how much shittier it all is than it could be. It certainly hasn't helped that the button-per-function thinking in consumer product design has been largely replaced with low cost small displays. Maybe I'll design a piano that uses sub-menus to play each note.

kingsuper20 6y ago
I was just thinking about how I'd like to redesign an internet radio. . Break apart the programming/setup from the physical interface. . Use a phone or pc for all setup, perhaps like a Google wifi router, a lot of the time this is done by a different person than the end user. . make it look like a Tivoli Model One, except with an 8 (or so) pole switch or button set. off/am/fm/aux/internet preset 1-5
- timidiceball 6y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connected-04091774/dp/B073WBB3Z5 https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connec... These came quite close to this (but have since been discontinued by Urbanears). Physical knob presets to internet radio stations (or turn it to “airplay/Bluetooth mode”)
  - kingsuper20 6y ago
    That does look pretty darn close. The other thing I worry about with internet radios is to keep the price low. It's just too easy to have the underlying webstrate (is that a word?) up and disappear. Think of Frontier or the death of the early Grace Digital radios (Reciva?)
- benhurmarcel 6y ago
  But there's a big gap between the cost of producing such a device, and what the target market would ever accept to pay just to listen to the radio.
  - kingsuper20 6y ago
    That's always the problem with US-based startups it seems. Anything that involves making a device involves a lot of upfront expense, probably offshore manufacture, sometimes running into the shoals of the FDA. Consumer electronics is a tough ol' business. Years ago, most new companies made a physical thing, and if I helped they had supporting software. The move into an economy based on surveillance advertising appears near-total. Obviously you could sell a box with knobs and buttons and a speaker that a R-Pi is stuck into, but that's hardly mass market and itself wouldn't be cheap to build at low volume.
hawski 6y ago
Could you trouble me with reasons? I for one just looked around what accessibility APIs are where and am thinking about a custom widget toolkit that would go from accessibility first down to typical graphical stuff. So if that's not a trouble for you, could you expand?
- kingsuper20 6y ago
  You know, a reasonable place to start would be to (for example) fire up a Mac, fire up Siri, turn off the monitor, try to get anything done at all. Write some software, set up the machine differently, reboot it, turn off the monitor, try again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
  - machello13 6y ago
    By Siri you don’t actually mean Siri, but the accessibility voice controls right? Like VoiceOver or Voice Control? Siri is not an accessibility tool so if you were trying to use it as one it could explain your problems.
    - kingsuper20 6y ago
      I mean both really, and to be sure I'm no expert in it's use. It got me to thinking about all the visual gingerbread on websites and to some extent on applications. From just a cursory look at this world, it would be interesting to design an audio-only interface to a computer rather than one that reads a display to you. That would be a wonderful hobby project, some sort of displayless Linux with a mic and a speaker that does useful standalone things. One thing it did occur to me to look into are (for instance) Alexa skills. That would be a natural way to provide access to a number of necessary abilities (like paying the power bill) and in many cases could work simply like traditional voice access via a phone. I see that this exists to some extent already.
      - machello13 6y ago
        If you have an iPhone or iPad, have you played around with Siri shortcuts at all? You can essentially create voice-operated scripts that can perform chains of actions on your phone. It's limited, but not as limited as you'd think.

kingsuper20 6y ago

I was just thinking about how I'd like to redesign an internet radio. . Break apart the programming/setup from the physical interface. . Use a phone or pc for all setup, perhaps like a Google wifi router, a lot of the time this is done by a different person than the end user. . make it look like a Tivoli Model One, except with an 8 (or so) pole switch or button set. off/am/fm/aux/internet preset 1-5

timidiceball 6y ago
https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connected-04091774/dp/B073WBB3Z5 https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connec... These came quite close to this (but have since been discontinued by Urbanears). Physical knob presets to internet radio stations (or turn it to “airplay/Bluetooth mode”)
- kingsuper20 6y ago
  That does look pretty darn close. The other thing I worry about with internet radios is to keep the price low. It's just too easy to have the underlying webstrate (is that a word?) up and disappear. Think of Frontier or the death of the early Grace Digital radios (Reciva?)
benhurmarcel 6y ago
But there's a big gap between the cost of producing such a device, and what the target market would ever accept to pay just to listen to the radio.
- kingsuper20 6y ago
  That's always the problem with US-based startups it seems. Anything that involves making a device involves a lot of upfront expense, probably offshore manufacture, sometimes running into the shoals of the FDA. Consumer electronics is a tough ol' business. Years ago, most new companies made a physical thing, and if I helped they had supporting software. The move into an economy based on surveillance advertising appears near-total. Obviously you could sell a box with knobs and buttons and a speaker that a R-Pi is stuck into, but that's hardly mass market and itself wouldn't be cheap to build at low volume.

hawski 6y ago

Could you trouble me with reasons? I for one just looked around what accessibility APIs are where and am thinking about a custom widget toolkit that would go from accessibility first down to typical graphical stuff. So if that's not a trouble for you, could you expand?

kingsuper20 6y ago
You know, a reasonable place to start would be to (for example) fire up a Mac, fire up Siri, turn off the monitor, try to get anything done at all. Write some software, set up the machine differently, reboot it, turn off the monitor, try again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
- machello13 6y ago
  By Siri you don’t actually mean Siri, but the accessibility voice controls right? Like VoiceOver or Voice Control? Siri is not an accessibility tool so if you were trying to use it as one it could explain your problems.
  - kingsuper20 6y ago
    I mean both really, and to be sure I'm no expert in it's use. It got me to thinking about all the visual gingerbread on websites and to some extent on applications. From just a cursory look at this world, it would be interesting to design an audio-only interface to a computer rather than one that reads a display to you. That would be a wonderful hobby project, some sort of displayless Linux with a mic and a speaker that does useful standalone things. One thing it did occur to me to look into are (for instance) Alexa skills. That would be a natural way to provide access to a number of necessary abilities (like paying the power bill) and in many cases could work simply like traditional voice access via a phone. I see that this exists to some extent already.
    - machello13 6y ago
      If you have an iPhone or iPad, have you played around with Siri shortcuts at all? You can essentially create voice-operated scripts that can perform chains of actions on your phone. It's limited, but not as limited as you'd think.