Re: [linux-audio-dev] [a bit OT] scroll and zoom conventions

Alfons Adriaensen wrote:

> Now my question: what about zooming ? For keyboard shortcuts,
> Ardour uses '+' to zoom out and '-' to zoom in. This is
> consistent with the idea that the user modifies the clipbox.
> But I still have to think before using it, each time, and I
> could easily imagine using '+' to zoom in. In fact I have no
> clear preference.

With all apps I can think of, ctrl+ or just + zooms in, or makes fonts
larger. So I'm used to that.

> Then there's the questions of icons. If in addition to the
> arrows in a scrollbar you would also have small buttons to
> zoom in and out, what should they look like ?
>
>
> Zoom in Zoom out

> -><- <->
>
> or the inverse ???

For me: inverse. Think of a pattern of dots and their relative movement
when zooming in or out. Mmh, for some reason i rather think of the
content, not the view. Maybe because the content is less abstract than
the view?

Common icons for zooming are magnifying glasses with plus and minus
signs on them (zooming in and out).

To be clear in an icon about this, you have to deal with both concepts:
view/viewer and content. Like depicting a camera above a plane and an
arrow up or down between the two (it is not adviced to use body parts
like eyes in icons. even leaving possible cultural issues aside, even
simplified eyes are extremely strong attention catchers ...). For a
camera you only need a rectangle and a trapez.

---
Thorsten Wilms