[IxDA Discuss] Is there a common name for the collection of media player controls?

[Mark Bardsley]

Thanks all. As always, sound advice.

(The term(s) will be used in some user documentation such as tutorials.)

- Mark

>From: Patrick Grizzard <gamutant at earthlink.net>
>
>I'll second "media transport." I think they still might be referred  
>to as such in Final Cut, which would support the hypothesis that the  
>term is derived from analog video editing rigs and playback devices.
>
>> If you are writing a spec, "media player controls" will probably be
>> understood by everybody working on application design &
>> implementation. If you are looking for a user-facing term, I think
the
>> reason there is no such common term is that users are accustomed to
>> seeing these controls all the time, so they basically know them by
look.

Supporting the second item quoted above, no matter what the origin and
"real name" of the controls are, avoid calling them "transport controls"
in the UI, Help, etc.  It's a term left over from the previous
technology (listen to Stan Freberg's  "The United States of America,
vol. 2", and I think the track is #27, "Henry Ford Invents Detroit") and
it only causes confusion for those who don't already know what it means.
Avoid jargon.  "Transport what?"

Controls, Playback Controls, Player Controls, Media Player Controls --
those should all be fine for the user.

(This assumes the product is targeted at general users, rather than
those with a narrow, intense knowledge base.  That set would be annoyed
if you *didn't* use the classic term.)

-- Jim