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R4 Marquee Control

I'm playing around with using the Marquee ability on the R4 as a way to display text which would otherwise be cut off or too small to be readable if reduced in size to fit. Initially, it worked pretty good; all the text was scrolling, and it just needed to be sped up, which is fine. After awhile though, the text on different buttons got out of sync with one another and it just looked annoying.

Since then, I've been trying to figure a clever way to utilize scrolling without the risk of making the screen appear terribly haphazard and obnoxious. I was trying to figure a way to make a button scroll once when pressed, but there's no way (to my knowledge) to know how long dynamic text will take to scroll through one complete revolution. On top of that, one couldn't simply make it momentary either, for as soon as the user lifted their finger off the button it would snap back (assuming off state is justified and on state a marquee).

So that's pretty much where I'm at. Anyone else come up with any creative ideas on using the marquee property?

Thanks!

Comments

  • alexanboalexanbo Posts: 282
    You could come up with a process that would guarantee that all buttons that were going to scroll had the same number of characters by padding with spaces or something.

    For example if you were going to scroll Radio and DVD on adjacent buttons you could add a space in front of and behind DVD so that they would scroll in unison.
  • a_riot42a_riot42 Posts: 1,624
    Ah yes, text scrolling. A solution in search of a problem. I really can't think of any suitable application to use this on an R4. Stock ticker maybe? Scrolling advertisements from sponsors? Scrolling "Brought to you by...insert name here."?
    Paul
  • filpeefilpee Posts: 64
    I was trying to use it to display a song title. Scroll once then stay as static.

    One or two firmware releases ago I found the R4 I found the following issues with the marquee
    Setting the marquee to Scroll-Left in the button Off state and to Disabled in the On state I can see the text move down by a couple of pixels.

    Setting the marquee to Disabled in the button Off state and to Scroll-Left in the On state the text never moves.

    Setting Marquee Repeat to No in any button state still repeats the text (but doest word wrap the text)

    Not sure if it has been resolved with recent firmware releases.
  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    a_riot42 wrote: »
    Ah yes, text scrolling. A solution in search of a problem. I really can't think of any suitable application to use this on an R4. Stock ticker maybe? Scrolling advertisements from sponsors? Scrolling "Brought to you by...insert name here."?
    Paul

    Media meta-content that you have no good idea how large it's going to be: a large window with word wrap can look silly when half empty, and throw off your design, especially when you have such limited space to start. In fact, I am quite sure it was introduced with the R-4 for the express purpose of providing an alternative to word wrap in limited space designs. Scrolling text is perfect for this.

    I would like to see a few more options in the marquee control though ... like the ability to scroll once, then stop; or to scroll on a press, or on a hold only.
  • Spire_JeffSpire_Jeff Posts: 1,917
    DHawthorne wrote: »
    Media meta-content that you have no good idea how large it's going to be: a large window with word wrap can look silly when half empty, and throw off your design, especially when you have such limited space to start. In fact, I am quite sure it was introduced with the R-4 for the express purpose of providing an alternative to word wrap in limited space designs. Scrolling text is perfect for this.

    I would like to see a few more options in the marquee control though ... like the ability to scroll once, then stop; or to scroll on a press, or on a hold only.

    They definitely need the option to scroll on touch or scroll once and stop.... or even implement it so that scrolling on a page is synchronized. Maybe every 5 or 10 seconds, the buttons scroll in unison.

    A large window with word wrap half empty does look silly, but a listing of 5 songs on an R4 scrolling continuously and out of sync is just plain confusing.

    Jeff
  • a_riot42a_riot42 Posts: 1,624
    DHawthorne wrote: »
    Media meta-content that you have no good idea how large it's going to be: a large window with word wrap can look silly when half empty, and throw off your design, especially when you have such limited space to start. In fact, I am quite sure it was introduced with the R-4 for the express purpose of providing an alternative to word wrap in limited space designs. Scrolling text is perfect for this.

    I would like to see a few more options in the marquee control though ... like the ability to scroll once, then stop; or to scroll on a press, or on a hold only.

    I think if scrolling text was something that helped users it would turn up more often on cell phones where screen space is at a premium. The only UIs I have ever seen scrolling text on was web pages from the mid 90s.
  • Spire_JeffSpire_Jeff Posts: 1,917
    Scrolling text works very well on my Sirius radio. It's also very prevalent on TV News programs (almost too prevalent imho). It is utilized on roadside billboards and I am sure others can post other places where it is used. I think the trick is to not overuse the feature. When done well, it should not call your attention to the fact that text is scrolling as much as you should it expect it to scroll so you see the rest of the information. To obtain this feeling, I think there needs to be that pause, or at least a way to have it scroll when touched, or once when the page opens.

    Jeff
  • a_riot42a_riot42 Posts: 1,624
    Spire_Jeff wrote: »
    It's also very prevalent on TV News programs (almost too prevalent imho). It is utilized on roadside billboards and I am sure others can post other places where it is used. Jeff

    I really dislike the scrolling text at the bottom of news stations. It is so distracting for the eye and breaks every UI design rule. What should the scroll speed be? Too slow and its annoying, too fast and its annoying. Its really just plain annoying. Did I mention its annoying?
    I am not saying not to use it, I just personally hate it.
    Paul
  • Spire_JeffSpire_Jeff Posts: 1,917
    I agree, I do hate it... most of the time. There are times tho that I enjoy the challenge of trying to catch the one sports score or stock price I want as the scroll continues. Whatever the speed, it always seems that just as my information is supposed to appear, it's time for a commercial :)

    Jeff
  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    a_riot42 wrote: »
    I think if scrolling text was something that helped users it would turn up more often on cell phones where screen space is at a premium. The only UIs I have ever seen scrolling text on was web pages from the mid 90s.

    It works well enough on my car stereo for exactly what I was describing. Old web pages used it for effect - and it was a lousy one, all flash and glitter. But that is not the point here, and it is, in fact, showing up on more devices. It's not the concept that's flawed, its the implementation.
  • mpullinmpullin Posts: 949
    DHawthorne wrote: »
    Old web pages used it for effect - and it was a lousy one, all flash and glitter.
    That was a period in our history where the internet was basically a big magic show. Visible hit counters, embedded MIDI files, and HTTP refreshes after 10+ seconds that yanked you to a completely different page were also in. Poof.
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