Post by Boomzilla on Jun 3, 2017 15:21:27 GMT -5
<RANT> Unfortunately, there isn't an ANSI standard for AV-gear menu systems. This means that the lowest-paid nerd at any AV company usually gets stuck with the unenviable job of creating the device's menu system. Now this nerd probably isn't paid much, and probably gets the menu-creation assignment about a week before the product is supposed to go to the assembly plant. The nerd probably doesn't get any overtime or even any bonus pay for this effort either. And of course, the nerd, who is here on a tech visa from some unheard-of third world country, and for whom English is a second (or third, or fourth...) language also gets tasked with writing the menu instructions.
Given the likely limitations listed above, we're lucky that most AV menus work at all. But navigating those menus, for the normal purchaser, is about like trying to do calculus equations while hopping on your left leg while rubbing your stomach. In short, if you can even find what you want to change in the menu system (itself, certainly not a given), the combination and sequence of buttons needed to make and save the change might as well be coming to the user via clairvoyance.
OSD graphical menus are bad enough, but front panel menus are absolutely the worst. The microscopic text requires coke-bottle-bottom-thick glasses to even read, and even then, the headings and sub-headings are not at all descriptive of what options might (or might not) reside underneath. You can spend a half-hour or more just trying to find the buried treasure that should be immediately obvious. I'd almost rather listen to the old lady nag than to do battle with the front-panel menus. This is not hyperbole!
Additionally, there are often four or five primary "top menu" items. Three or four of these top menu items have a "span of control" of but three to six options beneath each but the damned last top menu item (advanced settings or some equivalently vague title) has sixteen sub-menus with a dozen or more options below each of them, and all of those have their own individual sub menus that flourish like flies at a latrine.
The biggest shortcoming in AV gear today isn't the sound quality, the build quality, or the price - It's the damned user interface. And EVERY company's user interface is completely different! I've yet to find a single one that was user-friendly. I've yet to find a single one that I'd consider "intuitive," either. So in short, menus just SUUUUUUUUUCK! </RANT>
But venting aside, AV gear menus really and truly are a SERIOUS problem. If a complex menu system is paired with a vague or incomplete user manual (not an unusual occurrence), then good luck to you - You're going to need it.
So my proposal: Let's start a discussion - how SHOULD a good menu system look? How should it work? How would that same menu system be flexible enough to work with multiple components?
Offhand, I'd suggest a "pyramid" looking structure with an OSD. The more often-used parts of the menu should be "first" on the left-hand side.
Hovering the cursor over any header in the menu would pull up a pop-up of the options below that header. See what you want? Click that header title in the pop-up and go directly to that option without having to advance through the upstream headers.
Add a descriptive confirmation after each menu change; i.e. "The selection you've made will change your front R/L speakers from "large" to "small" Once you approve this change, you'll automatically be taken to the screen where you can select and implement the crossover frequency for the speakers. Is this what you want?"
Most of us on the Lounge don't need this level of "hand-hoiding" with menus, but the average customer probably does.
If you got a menu of the same "look & feel" for all your devices, what a wonderful world it would be (apologies to Mr. Louis Armstrong...).
Your thoughts?
Boomzilla
Given the likely limitations listed above, we're lucky that most AV menus work at all. But navigating those menus, for the normal purchaser, is about like trying to do calculus equations while hopping on your left leg while rubbing your stomach. In short, if you can even find what you want to change in the menu system (itself, certainly not a given), the combination and sequence of buttons needed to make and save the change might as well be coming to the user via clairvoyance.
OSD graphical menus are bad enough, but front panel menus are absolutely the worst. The microscopic text requires coke-bottle-bottom-thick glasses to even read, and even then, the headings and sub-headings are not at all descriptive of what options might (or might not) reside underneath. You can spend a half-hour or more just trying to find the buried treasure that should be immediately obvious. I'd almost rather listen to the old lady nag than to do battle with the front-panel menus. This is not hyperbole!
Additionally, there are often four or five primary "top menu" items. Three or four of these top menu items have a "span of control" of but three to six options beneath each but the damned last top menu item (advanced settings or some equivalently vague title) has sixteen sub-menus with a dozen or more options below each of them, and all of those have their own individual sub menus that flourish like flies at a latrine.
The biggest shortcoming in AV gear today isn't the sound quality, the build quality, or the price - It's the damned user interface. And EVERY company's user interface is completely different! I've yet to find a single one that was user-friendly. I've yet to find a single one that I'd consider "intuitive," either. So in short, menus just SUUUUUUUUUCK! </RANT>
But venting aside, AV gear menus really and truly are a SERIOUS problem. If a complex menu system is paired with a vague or incomplete user manual (not an unusual occurrence), then good luck to you - You're going to need it.
So my proposal: Let's start a discussion - how SHOULD a good menu system look? How should it work? How would that same menu system be flexible enough to work with multiple components?
Offhand, I'd suggest a "pyramid" looking structure with an OSD. The more often-used parts of the menu should be "first" on the left-hand side.
Hovering the cursor over any header in the menu would pull up a pop-up of the options below that header. See what you want? Click that header title in the pop-up and go directly to that option without having to advance through the upstream headers.
Add a descriptive confirmation after each menu change; i.e. "The selection you've made will change your front R/L speakers from "large" to "small" Once you approve this change, you'll automatically be taken to the screen where you can select and implement the crossover frequency for the speakers. Is this what you want?"
Most of us on the Lounge don't need this level of "hand-hoiding" with menus, but the average customer probably does.
If you got a menu of the same "look & feel" for all your devices, what a wonderful world it would be (apologies to Mr. Louis Armstrong...).
Your thoughts?
Boomzilla
