flat volume control

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flat volume control

• patrick baudischmicrosoft research,
  visualization and interaction research
• john pruitt (microsoft user experience)
• steve ball (microsoft eHome)

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summary
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traditional volume controlaudio may fail at
several points
flat volume controlapp volume sliders only
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contents

• the problem my audio does not play!
• flat volume control fixes this
• user interface design
• pilot study vs. Windows XP preference
• user study users 2x faster
• conclusions

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scenario (nobody I know)

• during talk video plays, but no audio
• crank up volume slider in app (1)
• volume control panel master volume (5)
• unmute wave channel (4)
• ? LOUD!!!

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a look under the hood
professionalmixers
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speakers
mastervolume
master
pc sound cards
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mute
wave channel
pc userinterface

sound card channel
mute
but pc users are notprofessional DJs!

mediaplayer
application
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what was the OS thinking?

• when I dragged up the slider in the application,
  what did the system think I was trying to do?

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flat volume control

• replace volume slider with smart slider that
  knows about the volume control hierarchy
• keep visuals, but change semantics of the slider
• if application does not play, drag its slider

make it play that loud
make volume less of equal
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user experience similar to automatic transmission
speakers
media player
app 2
app 3
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• auxiliary user interfacethe control panel

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thecpl
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thumbwheel-based design
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slider-based design
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algorithm

• on load convert to flat volume
• top-down traversal multiply by parent
• bottom-up traversal maximum
• whenever user adjusts flat volumecopy to
  hardware volume
• top-down traversal divide by parent
• causes the tight coupling
• optimizes signal-to-noise ratio

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deploymentlegacy app in new OS

• can manage apps without volume control
• cant animate slider in app
• application compatibility shims
• intercept getVolume() and setVolume() calls

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deploymentnew app inlegacy OS

• app can run flat volume
• adjusting channel/mastermay have side effects
• flood mark sliderwarns of side effects

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• pilot study user study

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pilot study

• goal are we on the right track?
• interfaces windows XP vs. flat volume longhorn
• mockup running three sounds sources
• seven participants with audio experience
• no training
• tasks a walkthrough
• PC muted unmute
• increase CD volume
• called them on phone, turn down volume
• restore volume
• repeat with other interface
• questionnaire to assess comprehension

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results

• discoverability of thumbwheel
• 6 out of 7 did not touch the wheel
• ? added animation to wheel
• subjective preference
• 7/7 preferred flat volume
• ? we are on right track

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user study

• hypothesis flat volume helps troubleshooting
• interfaces flat vs. hierarchical volume
• same mockup, same three sounds sources
• seven new participants with/out audio exp.
• no training
• part 1 same walkthrough tasks as pilot study
• part 2 troubleshooting performance tasks
• unmute, restore, max one, max all

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resultstask completion time
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resultserror rates same trend
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conclusions

• audio volume control is a problem(6 papers
  siteseer, but 30k pages google)
• flat volume control helps troubleshooting (but
  most of all avoids the need for it)
• future work
• other application areas (mixers, gamma)
• and vista!

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vista
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thanks!

• read more at www.patrickbaudisch.com
• thanks to
• ed cutrell mary czerwinski
• frank yerraceannette crowleylarry
  ostermanfrank wongand jeremy knudsen

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