Re: [Usability] Play/Pause or Play and Pause buttons in Jokosher

["Shane M. Coughlan" <shane shaneland co uk>]

Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> On Jan 10, 2007, at 3:39 AM, Calum Benson wrote:
>> - If you have separate play and pause (and/or stop) buttons, it should
>> be immediately obvious to anyone who knows what play, pause (and/or
>> stop) mean how they're going to behave.  If you only have a play 
>> button, you can't really tell what it's going to do until you press 
>> it.  (Will it turn into a Pause button?  A stop button?  Will it stay 
>> pressed in, or pop back out?)
> 
> At this point, people's experience with most software media players 
> from the past ten years (whether Windows, Mac, or Linux), combined with 
> the absence of any other nearby pause/stop button, should make it 
> obvious that Play will be a toggle.

It seems to me that visual clues can be used to show people what the
button will do.  For instance, the case of play/pause, perhaps it's
enough that when the mouse runs over the play button it morphs into a
pause button.

I'm not sure I buy the idea of buttons pressing in and popping out on 2D
interfaces.  Colour might be a better indicator.  Even something as
simple as the button becoming white instead of gray would make it clear
which button is active, and perhaps when paused the button could assume
a light gray shade.

Regards

Shane

-- 
Shane Coughlan
FTF Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
+41435000366 ext 408
coughlan fsfeurope org
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