--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:26:04 -0600
>From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #8561 Time Line in Audio Players
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
> I've been asked by one of the teachers in our institute to recommend the
> best media player for classroom use. He's running audio and video files
> off of his notebook and he complained about the difficulty of working
> with the timeline in iTunes; apparently it's hard to find specific points
> in the recording because the timeline is so short.
Several of us were discussing this problem at the recent CALICO Annual
Symposium. All media players that I have used suffer from four
closely-related problems. 1. They lack precision in spontaneously
selecting a specific point in the timeline. 2. For all but the shortest
media files, they lack a way to make accurate, small adjustments backward
or forward from the current playhead position. "Play that last sentence
again" is a very challenging request. 3. There is no clear way to relate
a relative position or displacement in the timeline to minutes and seconds.
I don't know if clicking half an inch to the right in the timeline will
take me forward thirty seconds or thirty minutes. 4. There is no
consistency between a short file and a medium or long one, in the magnitude
of timeline actions. Therefore, a teacher can't develop much of an
intuitive feel for a media controller, that would address some of a
player's imprecision.
The ability to bookmark a file, which Otmar mentions, is very valuable in a
media player. But that doesn't address spontaneous needs which arise
during a class or other presentation. Does anyone know of a player which
addresses some of the above limitations on the fly? For those on this list
who have helped develop media players, I wonder how/if these usability
questions were discussed. I've thought of a few interface options that
might be borrowed from other software, to improve the usefulness of media
players. I would be interested in whether others think changes of this
sort would be beneficial.
The ability to reliably replay the last few seconds of a media file
(problem 2, and partly, 4) is the feature that I wish for most often, both
in my own listening/viewing and when I am making presentations. To address
this, I would replace the dot or rectangle that indicates the current
"playhead" position in most media players with something giving accurate
and consistent control over small time changes. I imagine a moving
rectangle, containing three vertical lines. The center line would
represent the current playhead position. Clicking on the line to the left
or right of center would jump the playhead back or forward five seconds.
Clicking on the left and right edges of the moving rectangle would jump the
playhead back or forward ten seconds. This playhead rectangle would be the
same size for all media files, regardless of length. I imagine that this
would give useful, consistent control of an important function with a very
simple (for the user) modification in the interface of the media
controller.
For problem 1 above, I'd like to see a pop-up time indicator, similar to a
tool tip, which would appear when I moved my cursor over the timeline,
telling me the minutes:seconds at that point.
I don't have as clear an idea on how to address problems three and four.
One possibility would be to divide the timeline with short vertical lines
indicating every thirty seconds. On large files, these lines would be
close together. On smaller files, they would be further apart. In all
cases, they would give a quick visual indication of the file size and the
amount of time represented by clicking in a given position. There might be
some advantage in making the spaces between the vertical lines logarithmic,
but I suspect that this would confuse more than help.
I would be interested in anyone's comments on these ideas or other possible
improvements on the media player interface and functionality.
Derek
Derek Roff
Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: [log in to unmask]
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