Some cleanup items for the dialog: - We should use the standard Play/Pause buttons instead of "Play test sound". - The sound should play by default, and loop. - Additionally, there should be a volume control in the dialog
> We should use the standard Play/Pause buttons instead of "Play test sound". I'm not comfortable with it. > The sound should play by default, and loop. s-c-s can be run as a configuration utility too so I think it isn't so good idea to play sound immediately after start. Loop could be enabled by some check-box. > Additionally, there should be a volume control in the dialog Good idea.
(In reply to comment #1) > > We should use the standard Play/Pause buttons instead of "Play test sound". > > I'm not comfortable with it. What are your concerns with it? Anyone that uses the dialog will have to read the text that says "Play test sound" and process it first. The buttons are immediately recognizable to anyone without really reading it. Additionally, it will no longer need to be translated. Since we are playing sounds, it makes sense to have these controls. > > > The sound should play by default, and loop. > > s-c-s can be run as a configuration utility too so I think it isn't so good idea > to play sound immediately after start. Loop could be enabled by some check-box. If users are going to s-c-s, they either are in firstboot and want to make sure their sound card works fine, or they have a booted system and no sound, so they want to make sure its working. In both cases, they are going to "play test sound" first thing. Why make the user click it at all? There could be a small population of users that doesn't want to do this, but we should not target them. Right now, a very common use case of this dialog by the desktop user is to configure systems by clicking the test button, they don't hear anything. They check the cable to see if they plugged it in the wrong hole in the back of their soundcard. They click the test button again. They repeat until they hear sound. We want to make this easier for them. If we keep playing it for them without them having to do anything, they will be able to know what fixed the sound for them, and leave it alone. It's very frustrating to do this now.
Chiming in on the usability point of view. I think it comes down to expected behavior. When I visit a web page, nothing irks me more than having the web page kick up someones midi file in the background. It isnt my taste in music, this relates how to s-c-s ? At a guess, I'd say most users would use this application in two possible ways. This information is for both s-c-s and firstboot. 1) Accidentally. A user investigating what things "do", just by clicking around. The user will see the button "Play test sound" or "play", and expect there to be sound when it plays, forcing the sound apon them is rude and annoying. 2) Troubleshooting. When the user finds out that their ogg player isnt working, this would be the first place they turn to. In this area I would expect a volume control, a "test and loop" option while i mess around with the plugs at the back". It would be nice to have a soft melody loop in the background while messing with the sound, so that it doesnt startle the user when they have the volume turned up and they finally get the speakers in the right plug at the rear of the machine.
(In reply to comment #3) > Chiming in on the usability point of view. (these suggestions came from bryan clark, our desktop interaction designer with usability in mind -- i'm just the sap that gets to file them). > > At a guess, I'd say most users would use this application in two possible ways. > This information is for both s-c-s and firstboot. > > 1) Accidentally. > > A user investigating what things "do", just by clicking around. The user will > see the button "Play test sound" or "play", and expect there to be sound when it > plays, forcing the sound apon them is rude and annoying. There are lots of accidental things the user can do which will play sounds. This isn't really one of them. They have to go to the System > Administration menu and click on the thing that says "Soundcard detection". Additionally, there is a nasty dialog that appears asking users to enter their root password in order to get to the dialog. That will deter people who don't know what they are doing. If you get to the s-c-s dialog, you are either: in firstboot, your soundcard is broken, or you are doing dev/QA work on s-c-s ;-)
Created attachment 123713 [details] new look Okay, there is my proposal...
What I was suggesting was using a 'media widget' similar to those that we give people in our desktop applications. That way there is a famliarity to it and our positioning is more about showing off than the 'Press this button to see if sounds explodes' angle we have going. Playing our music when you first get to the page is another nice thing to do which makes the interface much less about testing than it is about playing and checking your sound. Assuming we use some actual music instead of lame test sounds it won't be so bad. And the hardwares volume should have been set to a safe low value already so we won't blow things up. I'll attach something to describe it a little more...
Created attachment 123744 [details] test play widget Here's the quick hack of a mockup The links don't have to be there since we probably don't allow web browsing at this point. However we can still show the artist and other album information. I left in a next and previous button because it would be nice to have a few songs that play, maybe 3. The repeat check box is there, but could be left off by default. When your sound isn't working you can hit that to have it continuously play while you fiddle with things. For songs it seems like we should be able to grab a couple from the CC music database that we think are nice. Assuming we have a nice song that starts off a little softly and then gets a little louder the auto-play when you get to the page won't be a problem. It should be a nice thing to get to this page and hear some cool music. I'm sure some of the marketing people have songs we could use or could help us find songs that would be appropriate.
I'm not against ogg files or some music but I think s-c-s was originally intended as a simple utility for test sound. In this case I'd have to add some ogg player, other dependency/files and so on...
Ok great. My main interest is making sure test sounds works just like they will on the desktop which is why I think if we make it look and act the same as the desktop does. And even by using the same code paths we'll have better luck getting peoples sound working the first time.
Where can I get any icons like these small speakers around the volume control slider? Do you have any idea who is the right person for the music question?
Martin, I would assume the speaker icons are part of rhythmbox.
The new version is in CVS/devel.
Created attachment 124642 [details] system-config-soundcard with helixplayer'ish controls New version looks like the mockup I did a couple weeks ago (but never got around to posting) :) I was going to suggest using the same interface that is in HelixPlayer as users would possibly be familiar with that layout... and the new version I see now is pretty close to the HelixPlayer interface.
*** Bug 113793 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Fixed in FC5/rawhide. Please reopen if you have any other comments/suggestions...