On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 3:42 PM, Kirk Bridger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Do users actually want to adjust volume for each application?
I do think that most of them don't, but we shouldn't just assume they don't. > Put another way, isn't there some way we can just intelligently guess which > apps should be louder? For example, the application I'm currently working > in versus background. Application notification vs application output (like > music players). The use cases for volume aren't all that complex, but this > discussion feels like it is becoming complex. True, but just assuming for the user would be frustrating in the end. Maybe we could incorporate a mechanism that adjusts the volume following specific rules, but the user should always have a choice if he wants to. > Are we overthinking things here? I've seen a few mockups, could we put > these in front of real users and ask if application-specific volume changes > are even a task they'd want to perform? That would seem like the way to go to have something satisfying; however I don't think we're overthinking it. Think of visually impaired users using tools such as screen-readers: I really think they want their screen reader to be louder than other applications. This is just one example, but it shows to what extent a full control over volume IS important. And even for more classical users, we should have such flexibility; the part that audio has in computing nowadays is just too important to be neglected (app. notifications, multimedia, voIP, ...) -- Guillaume Ardaud <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.noxneo.net/~ga _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list Usability@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
