What's your favourite slider behaviour on a touchscreen?

anzbert

Hi!

I am an app developer and I've previously released an Midi controller app with MPE.

One thing that I've been indecisive about was the behaviour of the sliders in my app. Android and iOS have different default behaviours there.

Let me explain the main difference.

One type can be touched anywhere on the track and the value will jump there immediately, while it also has a handle that can be dragged. Quite fast, but can be manipulated with an accidental touch more easily.

The other type only responds to the handles being dragged. Which prevents accidental changes better, but is more finicky and slower to use.

Which type do you generally think is more fun to use?

Thanks for your opinions. They are very helpful, as there are so many decisions to be made in GUI design.

Edit: Added another option to the poll.
The only concern I had with making it optional is just general option overload with too many settings in the menu. But now i am also considering it after receiving some feedback here

headmademusic

For me depends on the situation. When i‘ve to choose one, then to touch the point where i want to go.

tpj

Touching the track and having some relative moment.
Far less travel distance and fewer 'catch' attempts.
It's the best one for touch and accurate pencils.
The other one is more designed for a mouse pointer.

Why not make it a preference setting.

You can always pick the most common one and add a user preference setting so every user has the option.

I still see many devs designing apps that don't consider fundamental differences in touch gestures vs mouse actions.

if an app is well designed with touch interaction first. Switching to a mouse or desktop will usually work. Not so much the other way around.

catherder

@tpj said:
Touching the track and having some relative moment.
Far less travel distance and fewer 'catch' attempts.
It's the best one for touch and accurate pencils.
The other one is more designed for a mouse pointer.

Why not make it a preference setting.

You can always pick the most common one and add a user preference setting so every user has the option.

I still see many devs designing apps that don't consider fundamental differences in touch gestures vs mouse actions.

if an app is well designed with touch interaction first. Switching to a mouse or desktop will usually work. Not so much the other way around.

I would vote for your suggestion if it was in the poll. For live playing I'm not a fan of both fiddly controls and value jumps.

anzbert

Thanks so far for the comments.

I've added having an option in the poll and I might give that a try in my app. Was just a bit worried about option overload.

I am still curious if other have an opinion on the matter

Lorichs

The volume and pan control/sliders on the mixer in loopy pro are the best i have ever seen.

anzbert

@Lorichs said:
The volume and pan control/sliders on the mixer in loopy pro are the best i have ever seen.

oh man, you are not wrong. I love how precise you can get with them. Even with fat sausage fingers. it's great design

SevenSystems

Option 4 (how our sliders work): Drag anywhere on the track (which has no handle at all) to change the value. 😊

anzbert

@SevenSystems said:
Option 4 (how our sliders work): Drag anywhere on the track (which has no handle at all) to change the value. 😊

Cool idea what's your app. I would love to check it out.

SevenSystems

@anzbert said:

@SevenSystems said:
Option 4 (how our sliders work): Drag anywhere on the track (which has no handle at all) to change the value. 😊

Cool idea what's your app. I would love to check it out.

Here's one: https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/meow-audio-editor/id6477335742

You can find sliders in the "Process" -> "Filters" section (after you recorded audio), for example.

I think one of the most important things about sliders is tuning their sensitivity, range and response curve ("logarithmicness") just right for the value they control.

anzbert

@SevenSystems I like those sliders a lot. You dont get the sudden jump in value that way, but you still have a large surface to start controlling them.
Very nice app too! Thanks for the tip

SevenSystems

@anzbert said:
@SevenSystems I like those sliders a lot. You dont get the sudden jump in value that way, but you still have a large surface to start controlling them.
Very nice app too! Thanks for the tip

thanks! They also have heuristics to try and prevent a jump in value when you lift the finger and accidentally cause 'move' events. It's not perfect but objectively better than other implementations, including iOS' native sliders (not that difficult to be better than those, admittedly 😂)

michael_m

@SevenSystems said:
I think one of the most important things about sliders is tuning their sensitivity, range and response curve ("logarithmicness") just right for the value they control.

Definitely!

Frankly I don’t care so much about what they look like or the specific method they use as I do about how easy they are to use: