[Sumover-tech] Usability issues with "vic"

[Jason Bell]

G'day Piers

Thanks for your email and providing feedback.

I am happy to hear that the project is continuing, though under a
different project name.

Another comment in which I hope you don't mind me posting, is an option
that allowed "frequent" resorting of video thumbnails.  Not only could
you have a 'refresh' button, but an option that keeps everything sorted.
I personally think this would be quite useful.  If this were to be a
configurable option, we could be set it through the node services on the
access grid.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I could manage the time to provide the
patches, but would be grateful if someone could enable these features
and obviously I would be happy to assist with testing.

Thanks for your time,
Jason.

-----Original Message-----
From: Piers O'Hanlon [mailto:p.ohanlon at cs.ucl.ac.uk] 
Sent: Tuesday, 19 February 2008 2:09 AM
To: Jason Bell
Cc: sumover-tech
Subject: Re: [Sumover-tech] Usability issues with "vic"

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your suggestions. Just to let you know the SUMOVER project
finished last year but we have new project (called AVATS) with
Manchester University. The new project is focussed more on stability
then new features etc but minor changes are fine as long as stability
and usability are enhanced.
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/avats/

I think the additional menu items are quite doable as is updating the
help info - I think you're right there's not enough info made
available on some of the 'hidden' features.

The ordering of the video thumbnails has been mentioned before - I
think we could at least sort things out so they the existing
thumbnails are reordered if other sites disappear. I'll look at adding
a scrollbar.  In the newer version of vic the local video is in a
different shade of grey - it may be a good idea to keep the sending
video window separate.

Thanks for the input - feel free to make any suggestions (and patches).

Cheers,

Piers.

> To further my comments I wrote previously, I have tried a latest SVN
> snapshot version of "vic" and I like the "right click for context
menu" to
> select a video size.  I think this is great!
>
>
>
> I am wondering if it could be possible to expand upon this and
implement a
> "nested menu" option. Therefore, when you right click on the video
stream,
> you may have a couple of menu options such as (names not important,
just the
> concept):
>
>
>
> *         Video Size
>
> o    QFIC
>
> o    CIF
>
> o    SCIF
>
> o    1/16 NTCS
>
> o    1/4 NTCS
>
> o    NTCS
>
> o    1/16 PAL
>
> o    1/4 PAL
>
> o    PAL
>
> *         Other options
>
> o    Scroll Video Streams (shortcut being "<")
>
> o    Panorama View (shortcut being "x")
>
>
>
> Another option I really liked on a older version of open mash, was the
way
> you could set the video stream to cycle through video streams every 5
or so
> seconds...  This is a great feature if you have limited screen
real-estate and
> simply wanted to keep an eye on things.  If this is still possible, it
would
> be nice to have this as a menu option as well.
>
>
>
> Additionally, it would be nice if you could implement a "right click
for
> context menu" option on the video stream thumbnail screen.  This would
allow
> users to select tile arrangement and other nice things.
>
>
>
> Anyway, as you can see from my suggestions, most of the things that I
have
> suggested, are already possible to do it "vic".  It is simply making
the
> interface more user-friendly and simpler to use.
>
>
>
> Does this at all sound feasible and possible???
>
>
>
> I hope again that this is the appropriate forum to discuss these
ideas.
>
>
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Jason.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>  From: Douglas Kosovic [mailto:douglask at itee.uq.edu.au]
>  Sent: Thursday, 14 February 2008 09:28 PM
>  To: sumover-tech
>  Subject: Re: [Sumover-tech] Usability issues with "vic"
>
>
>
> Hi Jason,
>
>
>
> > 1.       The issue for me here is that I wouldn't like to clutter up
the
>
> > video streams with addition menu options, like an old version of the
>
> > openmash version of vic, but it would be useful if a user could
somehow
>
> > have a menu option (or whatever) that allows them to resize, or
other
>
> > vic "shortcut" key options... (How many people know that by hitting
the
>
> > "<" button on a video stream, they can scroll through the video
streams)
>
>
>
> Perhaps the Help dialog box should be updated with info on the
keyboard
>
> shortcuts, etc. The current VIC SVN version now has a right mouse
button
>
> context menu (which is the same video size menu as found in the video
>
> window menu bar from older UCL VICs).
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Doug
>
>
>
>
>
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