VV GUI

[Haudy Kazemi]

Mark Doliner wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Maiku <cmaiku at gmail.com> wrote:
>> For a while now the voice and video GUI has settled to the point where
>> it's functional, but I'm not very satisfied with it yet. Here's the
>> current GUI:
>>
>> http://www.mrprogrammer.net/vv-now.png
>>

<snip>

>>
>> Another issue that's been brought up is that the buttons at the bottom
>> move the input box. It has been suggested to move the buttons to be
>> under the video as a toolbar. I was wondering if this might also work
>> as a vertical button box, to the right of the input box. Maybe
>> something like this:
>>
>> http://www.mrprogrammer.net/vv-option.png
>>
>> I'm curious to hear input on these points and on the GUI overall.
>> Another idea to throw around would be how to handle the GUI for
>> multi-user voice and video conferences.
> 
> Putting the "Calling..." text and hangup and mute buttons underneath
> the videos is awesome.  It creates a tighter association between them.
> 

I like this 'vv-option.png' positioning better as well.  Here are some 
minor modifications of vv-option.png that you may also like.

1.) This one slides the 'Calling...' text and 'Hangup' button all the 
way to the right instead of leaving empty space.  This simultaneously 
allows the user input typing box to be a bit wider:
vv-option-mod1.png
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uIwPjZA2li7QXIFASHTicw

2.) This is a version of #1.  It is intended to show after a connection 
has been made.  It replaces the 'Calling...' text with a 'Mute' button 
under the assumption that muting has no meaning until you actually have 
a connection* :

vv-option-mod2.png
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zgD97ic_OShbcrWsVnRJLg

* I copied the mute button from 'vv-now.png'.  Some users may like to 
see/set their audio settings before a connection is made rather than 
afterwards.  In that case, hiding the mute controls until a connection 
is made isn't such a good idea.  I don't know if the mute button is 
intended to mute the local microphone (so the caller can't hear you but 
you can still hear them) or mute the caller (so you can't hear the caller).

3.) Mic and Speaker mute are two separate functions, and might deserve 
separate control, on a per-conversation basis.  Space could be saved by 
using microphone and speaker icons in muted/unmuted styles instead of 
the text 'mute' button.  Mockups:

vv-option-mod2-mute icons-Gnome.png (using darkened 16x16 Gnome icons 
from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sound_icons )
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mUojbih-SdHXjEHVVsNslQ

vv-option-mod2-mute icons-XP.png (using XP-style icons)
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/szpaO1AXCgYEHxS_OQBa-g

There are several things to think about for supporting/holding multiple 
simultaneous voice chats, that may have architecture impacts:
-maybe simply not allowing multiple simultaneous voice/video chats 
(plausible temporary solution)
-allowing all active conversions to hear the microphone vs. auto-muting 
the microphone for buddies so only the active buddy hears you vs. manual 
control for each conversion
-virtual conferencing with members on different protocols would be 
possible by setting up a voice connection on each protocol, sharing the 
microphone input with each, and relaying incoming audio from each to the 
other protocols (think of a speaker output to mic/line-input loopback 
cable).

That's all,

-hk