Members Mandolin Picker Posted September 5, 2017 Members Share Posted September 5, 2017 Not too long ago we had a discussion on here about the design of DAWs and whether their desire to look like real audio objects was a help or hindrance. Well here is something else to look at in that realm. Over at the Register, they have an article on a study that compared users interacting with web pages that were basically similar except some had a flat interface (much like what you now have on Windows 10) and others used a more '3D' type interface. They found it took users on average 22% longer to find stuff. That is significant. You can read more at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/05/flat_uis_designs_are_22_per_cent_slower_official/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted September 5, 2017 CMS Author Share Posted September 5, 2017 I often find myself poking around looking for buttons, but it doesn't matter to me if they're shaded or not. Sometimes they just don't register on my brain and it's like they're not there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mats Nermark Posted September 6, 2017 Members Share Posted September 6, 2017 I definitely believe that claim and I like 3D interfaces much better than flat ones. Cheers, Mats N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 I'm not really a big fan of flat interfaces - like Mats, I prefer 3D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted September 6, 2017 Members Share Posted September 6, 2017 That makes sense intuitively. Even simulated depth should help with the way our eyes and brain work to navigate the world around us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted September 7, 2017 Members Share Posted September 7, 2017 Did y'all look closely at the example GUIs? - the one on the right is "flat", the left "not flat". At least as far as the example goes, it has nothing to do with 3D shading. The difference between the two pages is simply in the links to "Shop Gold" and "Shop Garnet" that appear under the sections for each type of product. The "flat" links are indistinguishable from the (really tiny) text - not highlighted, not underlined. So the concept is not really 3D versus flat so much as "made visually different" versus "just like all the rest of the text." So, huh, it took a This Just In! "study" to figure out that people would find those links more slowly?? I use Win10 and I have no idea what they are talking about - I think this is GUI-design minutiae for those in the trade - I'm not seeing any such problems in my heavily computer-centric world.... nat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted September 7, 2017 Members Share Posted September 7, 2017 Navigating a DAW though becomes a performance routine and the bottleneck there is the mouse. All this stop and go, change direction, slow down for correct object... Certain tasks might benefit from a touch screen / real knobs and faders interface where one could two hand tap, twist and turn - and no RSS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted September 7, 2017 CMS Author Share Posted September 7, 2017 Did y'all look closely at the example GUIs? - the one on the right is "flat"' date=' the left "not flat". At least as far as the example goes, it has nothing to do with 3D shading. The difference between the two pages is simply in the links to "Shop Gold" and "Shop Garnet" that appear under the sections for each type of product.[/quote'] You mean that picture with the yellow and red blobs? I couldn't understand that. It looks the same on three different web browsers so I know it's not my computer. Maybe it's me? I didn't see anything that looked "3D" either. So, huh, it took a This Just In! "study" to figure out that people would find those links more slowly?? I use Win10 and I have no idea what they are talking about - I think this is GUI-design minutiae for those in the trade Remember that the Internet is full of people who want to make maxutiae from minutiae. Anything for a click. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted September 9, 2017 CMS Author Share Posted September 9, 2017 I got a rental car today. Quite a surprise from Mr. Hertz, who gave me a Mercedes Benz CLA250 when I reserved a mid-sized car. I don't know if it has a flat or 3D user interface, but it sure was hard to operate beyond starting, stopping, and steering. I had to get someone from the lot to show me where the shift lever (control, actually) was, and nobody could tell me that the [C] on the shift display means. I spent an hour studying the manual to figure out the door locks, that mysterious [C] and the radio. Never got very far with any of them. Nothing but icons and menus. And the manual reads like it was translated from German to Chinese before being translated to English. The grammar wasn't too bad, but it's 200+ pages that don't tell me what I want to know. It's kind of fun to drive, though it's a good thing I only have it until Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philboking Posted September 10, 2017 Members Share Posted September 10, 2017 I had the same problem when my son left me his Audi (along with a pile of other stuff, including a very sweet Carvin Cobalt acoustic guitar) while he was deployed to Iraq some years back. The icons on the dashboard were completely cryptic and indecipherable. While trying to turn off the seat heater, it opened the sunroof, and it took me hours to stumble onto the magic combination that would close it again. And it took me about a month of off & on searching to find the battery under the hood. Germans have intrinsically different ways of thinking and perceiving, as far as I can tell; possibly due to their language syntax. The company would be smart to include a Rosetta Stone app with their cars... [Almost Off-Topic] I know the German electronics test equipment (I won't mention the make, no use bringing legal heat down on HC) I use at work, while highly capable, is extremely difficult to set up and use. The menus and submenus don't make sense. The function names are not necessarily descriptive, at least to us ignorant Yanks... Whenever I have to use one, I immediately cable it up to a PC and program whatever tests I have to do by GPIB commands. By creating my own graphical interface I can lay it out using a more elegant and logical way. With some foresight I can also make the same program work with other brands of the same sort of gear, saving work in the future... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted September 10, 2017 Members Share Posted September 10, 2017 I have no interest in mixing via a flatscreen tv and I`m not surprised by the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted September 10, 2017 Members Share Posted September 10, 2017 Philboking wrote: Germans have intrinsically different ways of thinking and perceiving, as far as I can tell; possibly due to their language syntax. I experience some of that elusive difference reading manuals from the German software synth company Native Instruments. It's hard to define, but it's as if the Germans think more deductively than native English speakers. More general principles, less specific information. It's very U.S. American to just want to know "how it works" in mechanical terms, and not bother overmuch with "generalities". I'm speculating that, in the German mind, the "generalities" have more reality than the "specifics" do in at least a mind such as mine. I study the specs and let the generalities occur to me on days off, if ever. nat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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