When should there be a screen brightness OSD?

[Martin Klapetek]

On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar at autistici.org>wrote:

> On Saturday 18 January 2014 13:15:18 Martin Klapetek wrote:
>
> > > > Truth is you don't need to know the /exact/ brightness or volume
> level
> > > > in
> > > > fullscreen video, you simply fiddle with it until it suits you. In
> this
> > > > case it's maybe not as much about showing the exact percentage, but
> > > > about
> > > > providing visual feedback that you hit the correct keys and that they
> > > > are
> > > > working - I can imagine cases where users will press it couple times
> > > > more
> > > > to actually check if the brightness controls do work.
> > >
> > > The main problem I used to have is when powerdevil changes the
> brightness,
> > > especially when e.g. a TV is connected to the system. Kind of useless
> > > then.
> >
> > I thought about exactly this case. But if you disable the OSD in
> "passive"
> > actions, you might also miss that the computer is about to power off your
> > display (the brightness goes down every once in a while and when it's at
> 0,
> > DPMS will kick soon...by default). So I guess you do want some kind of
> > notification on external TV in case you left your power management
> enabled.
>
> The moment I read screen brightness OSD, I thought "Ah yes, that annoying
> thing, now it's the time to discuss it!"
>
> Honestly: Whenever I'm working on a laptop on battery, or - far worse
> still -
> on my WeTab with its super-aggressive screen powersaving, that screen
> brightness OSD annoys the crap out of me. Devices on battery tend to reduce
> brightness pretty quickly (and no matter how I fiddle with PowerDevil
> settings,
> that changes exactly nothing), so whenever I read some text, screen
> brightness
> is reduced a little every few seconds, each time showing that damn OSD on
> top
> of the text I'm reading. And of course whenever I move the mouse, the OSD
> shows again.
>
> So let's have a close look at this. What information do I get from that
> OSD if
> it merely responds to automatic brightness reduction due to power
> management?
> - That brightness is changed. Well, I can see that, right?
> - To which level it is changed. Well, why would I care? Apart from the
> numbers
> being unreliable (on my laptop, 0% brightness is still bright enough to
> read
> when logically, it should be pitch black), the only thing I care about is
> whether it's still bright enough for me (in which case I do nothing) or too
> dark for what I'm doing right now (in which case I move the mouse).
> - That my screen might be turned off soon. Well, as Martin G. pointed out:
> If
> the screen ever turns off while I'm watching a video, that sucks, and an
> OSD
> telling me that this is going to happen soon will not make the situation
> any
> less unpleasant
>
> So, to be provocative: I would not only suppress the screen brightness OSD
> if
> there is a full-screen application running, but instead I would not ever
> show
> it when screen brightness is changed automatically. When it's changed
> manually, the OSD makes sense to give the user feedback on their action,
> but
> automatic screen brightness reduction is not something people need to be
> told
> about, since they see it.
> Have you ever seen a mobile OS showing an OSD every time the brightness
> changes? I haven't, and since Plasma Active I know why: Because it would be
> annoying as hell.
>

Amen, brother.


> Does anyone have an argument pro OSD on automatic brightness change which
> does
> not just reflect an underlying problem (such as the screen turning off
> while you
> watch a movie)?
>

I totally agree with you. I'm all for leaving it only for manual changes.
Also I've removed the label now too, it doesn't tell anything useful really
imho.

Cheers
-- 
Martin Klapetek | KDE Developer
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