Re: New approach to HTML Media Capture

On Apr 22, 2011, at 10:08 AM, David Singer wrote:

> 
> On Apr 21, 2011, at 12:31 , Aryeh Gregor wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
>>> I still don't understand what problem this is solving.
>> 
>> Use case: I want to write a web page that does simultaneous
>> translation of spoken language, targeted primarily at mobile phone
>> users.  Although it's possible that some users will want to upload
>> files they've saved, the overwhelming majority of users will want to
>> use their microphone to translate something they're hearing in real
>> time.  I need the microphone opt-in to be prominent and obvious to
>> users, not obscure or optional.
>> 
>> Use case: I want to write a web page that does photo analysis, similar
>> to Google Goggles, targeted primarily at mobile phone users.  Although
>> it's possible that some users will want to upload files they've saved,
>> the overwhelming majority of users will want to use their camera to
>> take a picture of something they want more info about right now.  I
>> need the camera opt-in to be prominent and obvious to users, not
>> obscure or optional.
> 
> In both of these cases, it seems that the service is saying "I want a WAV audio file" or "I want a JPEG picture", and maybe the browser could suggest/offer, as part of its dialog "heh, you canna capture a new one rather than finding an existing file?", rather than have the service 'decide' that what it really wants is a new capture.

I'm sympathetic to that point of view, but I'm not sure it's right from an HI perspective. For native applications, it's common to only offer only one of file input or camera/microphone input. It's somewhat uncommon to offer a generic dialog that gives the user the choice of existing file or capture. For example, on Mac OS X, Preview opens files and doesn't do camera capture. Photo Booth can take pictures with the camera, and doesn't even have an option to choose an existing file (even though you could imagine that applying its photo effects to an existing file might be useful). On iOS, you see the same pattern. Apps generally offer access to the system photo collection or their own image collection separately from camera capture, even if they provide both. And many apps only do one or the other.

I think people will want to build Web apps that meet the same standards of HI polish.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Friday, 22 April 2011 18:42:23 UTC