Improve UX in error messages (#1568) #1732
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ann0see
changed the title
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I should add the ritual UX invocation on all this: before sitting down to write an error message, consider whether the system can be changed such that the message isn't needed :-) |
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To add, I think contractions should be kept consistent. Currently, there's some variance for doesn't and couldn't. In my opinion, I think we should use the contracted form to sound a bit less robotic. |
Agree. This comes with the unification of style&tone probably? |
Yes. Probably that's a good solution. Let's wait for others to comment. Note to maintainers: Good candidate for squash and merge. Will maybe do it manually |
mac/sound.cpp
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| @@ -463,7 +463,7 @@ QString CSound::CheckDeviceCapabilities ( const int iDriverIdx ) | |||
| ( !( CurDevStreamFormat.mFormatFlags & kAudioFormatFlagIsPacked ) ) ) | |||
| { | |||
| return tr ( "The audio input stream format for this audio device is " | |||
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| return tr ( "The audio input stream format for this audio device is " | |
| return tr ( "The audio input stream format for this sound hardware is " |
This suggestion sounds strange to me but would be needed if we follow the style guide.
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Yes, the trouble with style guide vocabulary rules is that don't always fit the context. I'd say it would read a bit better if it was ".. for your sound hardware" perhaps.
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The stream format on the current input device is not %1. Please select another device or reconfigure.
I really don't like hardware. From Jamulus's perspective, it's just the audio source or audio sink. We have no idea what's on the end of the device driver.
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We could maybe say in the guidelines that "device" is interchangeable with "hardware" if needed? The former is less newbie friendly, so would prefer "hardware" in most cases, but here perhaps "device" is more helpful maybe the OS refers to "devices" too?
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In Windows, click the speaker icon in the tooltray to pop open the the volume, then click the "^" to pop up the selector list -- it says "Select playback device". So Windows users will understand "recording device" (for an input) and "playback device" (for an output).
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The overall control is "Open Sound settings", where "Output"->"Choose your output device" and "Input"->"Choose your input device" live.
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So we could modify what we have in the guide so that "device" would be OK along with related terms:
"Device" to refer to audio hardware seen by the OS. "No device selected", "Input device”, "Choose the device".
“Audio interface” to refer to external devices. “If your audio interface comes with a driver”, “Your audio interface may be set to ‘monitor’”.
"Sound card" to refer to built-in audio devices. "Your computer's sound card".
“Sound hardware” refers generically to both internal and external devices. “Your sound hardware will introduce some latency”, “Most sound hardware can be used”.
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Well, this is mac/sound.cpp, so it should follow Apple MacOS conventions, rather than Microsoft Windows conventions. We should follow OS language conventions in OS-specific messages. JACK has its own naming conventions, too.
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Ok. So "stick to naming conventions your OS uses" should be added to the google doc probably?
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@mulyaj to discuss this one today
So probably
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1 & 2 are all I could remember without going through all the closed off review comments again. |
Co-authored-by: Martin Passing <github@passing.name>
Co-authored-by: Martin Passing <github@passing.name>
Co-authored-by: Martin Passing <github@passing.name>
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@gilgongo could you please review the code so that we can squash and merge this? |
windows/sound.cpp
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| APP_NAME + tr ( " software." ); | ||
| return QString ( tr ( "The current audio device configuration is incompatible " | ||
| "because the sample rate couldn't be set to %1 Hz. Please check for a hardware switch or " | ||
| "driver setting to set the sample rate manually and restart the app." ) ) |
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What does "the app" mean here? If it's Jamulus, we should say that.
Co-authored-by: Jonathan <4561747+gilgongo@users.noreply.github.com>
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CHANGELOG: Rewrote multiple error messages to improve UX. |
This is the a start for a discussion!
I looked over some error messages especially concerning the sound system and changed some. It would be great if @gilgongo and @mulyaj looked over these messages from an UX point of view. Also I'd appreciate if @pljones or @softins looked at the content.
Context:
#1568
Note: I need to keep jamulussoftware/jamuluswebsite#339 in mind.
Missing before merge:
Final review