4 ms·

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 valu

by bodhi 14y ago

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.

Udo 14y ago
I think it might be interesting to have a knob-like control that responds to the scrolling action of the mouse/touchpad. At least with that, you'd have (somewhat) clearly defined up and down actions. Touchscreens could support this with a two-finger-up/down gesture, and then we'd be very well on our way to Trek-like UIs ;-)
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Some iOS apps already do (can't remember right now).
  - bodhi 14y ago
    I'm not sure if it's what Udo meant, but the date/time widgets are in this vein. Actually, a knob that functioned like those widgets would be quite interesting.
gravitronic 14y ago
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 :)
tripzilch 14y ago
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.

4 ms·

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 valu

by bodhi 14y ago

Udo 14y ago
I think it might be interesting to have a knob-like control that responds to the scrolling action of the mouse/touchpad. At least with that, you'd have (somewhat) clearly defined up and down actions. Touchscreens could support this with a two-finger-up/down gesture, and then we'd be very well on our way to Trek-like UIs ;-)
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Some iOS apps already do (can't remember right now).
  - bodhi 14y ago
    I'm not sure if it's what Udo meant, but the date/time widgets are in this vein. Actually, a knob that functioned like those widgets would be quite interesting.
gravitronic 14y ago
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 :)
tripzilch 14y ago
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.