Re: [Usability] screenshot & recording desktop video

[Markus Bertheau ☭ <twanger bluetwanger de>]

В Птн, 10/06/2005 в 14:28 +0200, Matthew Thomas пишет:
> 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.

So I guess the question is, who this is going to be for initially. I had
(unprofessional) demos of free software in mind, and my mom, who wants
to show me what's going wrong when she hits that button. And she's
behind a firewall, so vino doesn't work.

On the other hand, if the visual clue to find it is big enough, that
recording interface could go into the panel.

> > 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. :-)

Probably true. I don't have a better idea though.

> > ...
> > 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.

Agreed.

> > ...
> >> 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.)

Why would a person be dithering about that?

> > 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.

I'd consider that a technical coincidence.

> 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  )) |
>                                     |________________________________|

GNOME tries to label buttons with what happens when you click them. And
that's a problem here, since you either record a video or take a
picture, and I guess a11y will oppose against dynamically changing the
button label. Also this dialog would make it two steps to a screenshot
instead of one, as it is now.

As I said above, my mom doesn't know about PNG and Ogg Theora. That's
the question about the target group again.

We got along without options for the current screenshooter, too.

Markus

-- 
Markus Bertheau ☭ <twanger bluetwanger de>