Nice Knobs

[ibi sum]

It might surprise you but I have done a lot of personal research on
this subject over the last 10 years, and have made my own conclusions.
 I will share the details with you, but I am not religious about it -
this is only on the basis of my own personal requirements: easy to
use, provide visual feedback easily, allow context between parameters
to be incorporated into the design.

The best knobs I have ever seen were in the Lunar Lander Module.  All
other knobs pale in comparison.  In fact the whole Lunar Landor Module
is an exercise in brilliant interface design, and I encourage you to
examine the details closely:

http://www.spaceaholic.com/lunar_module_saturn_v.htm

http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/Enlargement.aspx?id=RR022344&ext=1

http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/Enlargement.aspx?id=RR032207&ext=1

Also, the Russians have done a lot of interesting work on this subject:

http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/graphics/e/ensotm2.jpg

http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/graphics/e/ensotm1.jpg

http://www.astronaut.ru/bookcase/article/article150.htm
http://web.mit.edu/slava/space/essays/essay-tiapchenko1.htm


You might notice that there are *very* few knobs in these instruments
that are simply round with a little notch - nearly all knobs used in
space are the pointer type, and for fine and coarse adjustment the
user can decide, quite easily, which part of the knob to grab and get
different speeds of rotation.  For this the 'skirted' knob is quite
popular - at least in the modular world - so a combination of 'skirted
pointer' would be my personal recommendation.  This has the advantage
that knobs can provide context to and with each other - you can look
at a field of settings and see where they are - in relation to each
other - with very little focus required.

If * = knob
and ^ V = pointer dial
then:

* * * * * * versus V v ^ / \ ... provides a lot more context between
related parameters.



On 11/11/09, Jonny Stutters <jstutters at jeremah.co.uk> wrote:
> 2009/11/11 Matt Picone <matman at mysticworks.com>:
>> Hello -barians
>>
>> I'm designing knobs for a new audio software application.
>>
>> What are some of your favorites? Why?
>
> I'm not going to pick on any particular examples.  I think you'll
> probably find that for every knob system there are a group of people
> who religiously believe that their way is the one true path to
> rotational goodness.  The main things that occur to me are:
> - Don't make 'em fiddly to click on
> - Make sure that gross and fine movement are possible
> - Stepped selector knobs can often be implemented better with buttons
> - No faux hardware graphics
> - Make the most of being on a computer - provide lots of graphical
> feedback (e.g. Tony's example of the knobs in Massive showing
> modulation ranges.
>
> Jonny
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