Patrick Baudisch
John Pruitt
ABSTRACT
The hardware-inspired volume user interface model that is in use across all of today's operating systems is the source of several usability issues. One of them is that restoring the volume of a muted application can require an inappropriately long troubleshooting process: in addition to manipulating the application's volume and mute controls, users may also have to visit the system's volume control panel to find and adjust additional controls there. The "flat" volume control model presented in this paper eliminates this and other problems by hiding the hardware-oriented volume model from the user. Using the flat model, users use one slider per application to indicate how loud they want the respective applications to play; the slider then internally adjusts all hardware volume variables necessary to obtain the requested output. By offering a single point of control for each application, the flat model simplifies controlling application volume and restoring muted applications. In our studies, participants completed all four volume control and mixing tasks faster and with less error when using the flat model than when using the existing hardware-oriented volume control model. Participants also indicated a subjective preference for the flat model over the existing model.
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Index Terms
- Flat volume control: improving usability by hiding the volume control hierarchy in the user interface
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