[IxDA Discuss] Why not ask for *opinions*? (was "The old Play/Pause toggle")

[Christopher Fahey]

> Can anyone point me to sources in which people have done 
> usability studies of such a behavior in various interfaces, 
> and how effective or not effective it is? 

Why do so many list questions always begin with "Are there any studies
about...?" instead of "What is your expert opinion about...?" 

It seems to me that quite often the question being asked is unlikely to show
up in any relevant research studies anyway. And even if there are, the
question is inevitably, albeit sheepishly, answered by other list members
offering their own unscientific expert opinions. And more often than not
these expert opinions are pretty darn good. 

For example, in the case of the PLAY/PAUSE button question, Liya (I'm not
picking on you, Liya!) indicates that her application is fairly different
from a normal media player model. If there are any studies about play/pause
buttons out there, they may be at best tangentially applicable to her
exceptional requirements. Yet I'll bet that dozens of us on the list have
given this concept lots of thought at one point in our lives or another. 

In that spirit of expert advice, here are some of my design opinions about
the PLAY/PAUSE problem: Stick as closely as possible to existing metaphors
and conventions even if it's not exactly a media player. Some one-button
examples: For one (flip/flop) button, use icons not text (more on this
below). When the app is in PLAY mode, blink the play button. When it's
paused, put a big "PAUSED" message somewhere (not on the button). As an
alternate one-button approach, create a more literal image of a toggle
switch (http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/store/images/toggle_switch.jpg). And
here's a two-button example: Have two buttons, PLAY and PAUSE. Only one can
be pressed at a time (like a radio button). What not to do: Do not have the
button say "PLAY" when it is paused and "PAUSE" when it is playing. If your
users are familiar with iTunes or Windows Media Player, they will understand
the icon approach but the text approach is just too confusing. The text
approach defies common sense. Finally, if you are not literally using PLAY
and PAUSE as the exact user-facing term for the feature (i.e., if the
feature is really thought of by the user as "ENABLED/DISABLED" or
"OPEN/CLOSED" or "BUY/SELL"), then do NOT use a PLAY/PAUSE style flip/flop
button.

Cheers,
-Cf

Christopher Fahey
____________________________
Behavior
http://www.behaviordesign.com
me: http://www.graphpaper.com