[thelist] Please give me UI modification suggestions!

[David Bindel]

> I have been asked to make some changes to some controls we are
> working on. Start by viewing a small shot of them here:
>
> http://www.doctormusic.net/tom/need_feedback.gif

> As you can see its an "equalizer" type control, if you were to click
> in the center, the highlight would move there - kind of a bar graph
> thing. (Whether you like the idea or not, we're past the point of no
> return on that one).
>
> These controls (stick with the "pitch" one for example) control a 3D
> view of a VML/SVG object that is above it.
>
> So clicking halfway down the pitch control will set the pitch to 45
> degrees (halfway between 0 - 90)
>
> They want some kind of visual feedback on the controls (rightly so)
> so that the user has some frame of reference before they click
> (instead of just trial and error.)

I think you should consider something like what The5K.org used for their
voting system.  Here's a link to an example below, but you will have to
register with them really quickly before you can actually see how the voting
control works: http://www.the5k.org/description.asp/entry_id=1172

When you move your mouse to a higher rating on the voting control bar, the
different levels are highlighted.  When you finally make the decision of
what rating you want to give the 5K entry, you click on one, it locks in,
and changes the graphic to a different one saying the average rating and
thanks the user for voting (after you click you can't change your vote, the
image becomes statix).  Of course this would be a little bit harder for you,
because unlike The5K, your users will most likely want to change the
controls more than once.  So you would have to design a way where once they
click on a certain level, the onmouseout attribute for that object is
temporarily stopped for 5 seconds so they have a chance to move their mouse
away without it resetting the level they selected.

Good luck,
David Bindel