It takes an engineer to argue that a single button projector interface is "= reasonable". 'Cause, you know, a two-button interface (back/forward) is unn= ecessary luxury. :) "The concept of an intuitive user interface is deeply flawed". Not really. = Few men would be baffled by two buttons labeled "forward" and "back". On th= e other hand, there are documented cases of people baffled by the "clever" = single-button UI. > And a designer who thinks his > interface is intuitive also thinks that that spareshim the necessity of > documenting it. Non-sequitur, but I'll bite. I've never read my iPhone manual. But every ti= me I go to use my air-air handheld, I am convinced that the guys who design= ed the UI, were guided by the motto "Screw intuitive UI, RTFM". Sent from my phone > On Jul 18, 2014, at 11:30, David C Brown wrote: >=20 > Panel space is the main limitation, along with the number of inputs to th= e > PIC. O remember that slide projector interface used to be common and > rarely caused problems. It is not unreasonable to expect users to have > some familiarity with the equipment that they are using. The concept of > an intuitive user interface is deeply flawed since what is intuitive to o= ne > man is deeply baffling to another. And a designer who thinks his > interface is intuitive also thinks that that spareshim the necessity of > documenting it. /rant >=20 >=20 >> On 18 July 2014 19:01, Vitaliy M wrote: >>=20 >> Why is "minimum panel hardware", important for this project? Cost, size >> limitations, ... ? >>=20 >> A note of caution: engineers are known for being proud of clever >> solutions, at the expense of usability. >>=20 >> In one of the books on UI design, the author cites an example of a slide >> projector, where a single button was used to control the slide show. Cli= ck >> once to advance to the next slide. Hold the button for one second, to go >> back. Genius! Except when an unfamiliar user is asked to run the project= or, >> and the slides start to jump back and forth. The engineer shaved $0.10 o= ff >> a $200 BOM, whoop-dee-doo. >>=20 >> If it's a one-off device, for your use, cost of the UI shouldn't be an >> issue. If it's something you're expecting to ship in volume, I would try >> hard to make the UI as intuitive as practical. >>=20 >> Sent from my phone >>=20 >>> On Jul 18, 2014, at 6:17, David C Brown wrote: >>>=20 >>> I am building a simple pulse generator using an LTC6903 "synthesiser >> chip" >>> and a few TTL chips. The range will be from about 0.1Hz to 68MHz and t= he >>> frequency is set, geometrically, by a 15 bit control word. I will be >>> using a PIC16F87 to control the synthesiser and drive a display. >>>=20 >>> My problem is how to set the frequency by hand using the minimum panel >>> hardware. I need control at the finest level, stepping the control >>> register by one but also need to be able to make large frequency shifts >>> quickly, perhaps stepping the register by 2^10 >>>=20 >>> I have studied this for some time and come up with several solutions, n= on >>> of them entirely satisfactory, but I would appreciate, in the first >>> instance, suggestions which are not influenced by my thinking. >>> -- >>> __________________________________________ >>> David C Brown >>> 43 Bings Road >>> Whaley Bridge >>> High Peak Phone: 01663 733236 >>> Derbyshire eMail: dcb.home@gmail.com >>> SK23 7ND web: www.bings-knowle.co.uk/dcb >>> >>> -- >>> http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >>> View/change your membership options at >>> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >>=20 >> -- >> http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >> View/change your membership options at >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >>=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > --=20 > __________________________________________ > David C Brown > 43 Bings Road > Whaley Bridge > High Peak Phone: 01663 733236 > Derbyshire eMail: dcb.home@gmail.com > SK23 7ND web: www.bings-knowle.co.uk/dcb > > --=20 > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .