Re: [Usability] screenshot & recording desktop video

[Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On 9 Jun, 2005, at 7:32 PM, Markus Bertheau wrote:
> Dnia 07-06-2005, wto o godzinie 21:50 +0200, jeroen xs4all nl
> napisał(a):
> ...
> > 1. "Hide" the "Record desktop video" functionality in the popup menu 
> > of the Screenshot panel button. You then popup a dialog asking the 
> > user where the video should be saved, what type of video (Theora, 
> > AVI, mpeg4) it should be saved as and how long (seconds) or 
> > unlimited.
>
> Just save it on the desktop and choose a type that works for the user.
> My mom certainly can't educatedly choose between theora, avi and mpeg4.
> I'm also not sure about the usefulness of specifying a number of 
> seconds to record. Why do you think it's not enough to hit the stop 
> button when you want the recording to end? What user scenario is there 
> for that feature?

Scenario: You're recording a product demo for a Web site. You don't 
want a video recording interface to appear in the video, because that 
would look unprofessional.

> Many people also don't have a screenshot panel button, they use the 
> iten in the system menu when they want to take a screenshot. Maybe put 
> a "Record video of desktop" item there.

Already it's vaguely amusing that "Take Screenshot" *appears* to be one 
of the ~30 most important functions in a Gnome-based operating system, 
since it's at the top level of the menus. "Record Video of Desktop" at 
the top level would be even funnier. :-)

> ...
> You should probably record to /tmp first and move the file to the
> desktop when recording is done, so that the thumbnailer doesn't run all
> the time and sucks up cpu. (This is a nautilus or whatever bug imho).

More importantly (especially since the Nautilus bug has been fixed), in 
the scenario above, you don't want a video file icon appearing on the 
desktop a couple of seconds into the video. That would also look 
unprofessional.

> ...
> > 2. Modify the screenshot dialog so the user can say "no i don't want a
> > static screenshot, record a video instead". After that, the same 
> > workflow follows as described above. I'm not sure this is a good 
> > approach since if done incorrectly, you could clutter the screenshot 
> > dialog (it's really simple & easy to use atm).

The only option that doesn't apply to both of them is when to stop 
recording, so I don't think separate dialogs are necessary. (And 
putting them in the same dialog caters for the person who may be 
dithering about whether to take a picture or a video.)

> > We might just add an option to indicate the user wants to record a 
> > video and then for how long (seconds) or unlimited (user-action to 
> > stop recording). And then after it has recorded the video only then 
> > ask how & where to save it. Problem with this approach is that you 
> > get 1 dialog for 2 different functions. For example: the current 
> > dialog has a Save (iirc) button for saving the screenshot. How would 
> > this work if you could also start recording a video in that dialog?

As described above, by putting the file on the desktop after the 
screenshot/recording is finished.

> I think including desktop video functionality in the screenshot dialog
> is a bad idea. What you see after launching the screen shooter does not
> very much resemble a video recorder type of thing.
> ...

But almost all the useful options are the same.

How about this:
 ________________________________   ________________________________
|:::::::::: Screenshot ::::::::::| |:::::::::: Screenshot ::::::::::|
|                                | |                                |
| (*) Take a picture             | | ( ) Take a picture             |
| ( ) Record a video             | | (*) Record a video             |
|                                | |                                |
|   Of what: [active window  :^] | |   Of what: [active window  :^] |
|    Format: [PNG            :^] | |    Format: [Ogg Theora     :^] |
|            ( Options... )      | |            ( Options... )      |
|                                | |                                |
| To take another picture with   | | To record another video with   |
| these settings, type Alt+<foo>.| | these settings, type Alt+<bar>.|
|                                | |                                |
| Take shot: [after 2 seconds:^] | |     Start: [after 2 seconds:^] |
|                                | |      Stop: (*) after [ 10]H s  |
|          ( Cancel ) ((  OK  )) | |            ( ) when I type     |
|________________________________| |                Alt+<hum>       |
                                   |                                |
                                   |          ( Cancel ) ((  OK  )) |
                                   |________________________________|

--
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/