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New volume and brightness indicators stress me out
- Thread starter Enzo Morocioli
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The specific placement in the upper right doesn’t bother me so much as the fact it’s moved from where it’s been for so very long. That said, having it away from my content is actually better in the end.
What I would suggest OP, is when you’re changing volume try and consciously associate the physical action you’re performing with the visual feedback you’re getting. Over time, hopefully you’ll create a subconscious association between the physical action and visual feedback and it will bother you less and less until the point you barely notice it.
What I would suggest OP, is when you’re changing volume try and consciously associate the physical action you’re performing with the visual feedback you’re getting. Over time, hopefully you’ll create a subconscious association between the physical action and visual feedback and it will bother you less and less until the point you barely notice it.
Imagine if they gave us options!
It is "soft"ware after all 😂
Part of the reason software has taken over the world is due to how flexible it is.
This insistence that the internet is somehow separate from our day-to-day life and anything should just go without being called out baffles me. Sorry you're like this!
'Real life" and the internet are of course not two separate things, but people really have different behavior patterns on the internet than in "real life".
To be blunt about it, people are far more callous an intolerant on the internet than they would be face-tp-face or on a phone call. The nature of the "tally " part of the internet, forums and social media, does reward extremes and conflict more than it does consensus and mutual respect. And I strongly believe people are less truthful online, because acting like a D88k online is generally consequence-free, relative to "real life".
Have you ever seen a thread on this forum, as an example, that has gone from disagreement to consensus, or do the threads amplify disagreement as they progress?
I'm very much of the opinion that a lot of the "ens**tifcation" of our real lives comes from people, more and more often, behaving in real life as they do online.
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I can't speak to entire threads, but individual users do reach consensus and mutual understanding through further discussion.
It happened just this morning with @JOLoughlin and I in here:
It's lovely feeling when it happens, it shouldn't be so rare. Given the amount of access to information and other opinions, it's pretty damning that access to so much leads to entrenchment of opinions, not their widening.
If you use your computer for work and if you work in a high-stress job, this is completely normal and understandable behavior. I am slightly jarred every time I hear the Outlook "new email" notification sound because it can happen at inconvenient times, including late at night or on the weekends, and it might mean I have to work. That's stressful.
Anxiety exists. It's 2025; this should not be a controversial or hard to understand reality.
I feel sorry that something as little as this is enough to trigger an anxiety response in you. If we’re reaching this point I’m not sure if there’s much Apple can do because whatever they’ll do it’ll probably trigger anxiety in someone somewhere. Unfortunately an operating system isn’t a product tailored to individual needs to this extent. It also makes we wonder what path we’re on as a society. It doesn’t seem healthy that’s for sure.
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This is definitely something, that, if it's to be addressed, would be addressed as an "accessibility setting", not a as the default in how the OS operates.
I find my microwave or dishwasher beeping at me when it's finished its program to be annoying and anxiety-inducing, but it also serves an essential function or the device. No matter how uncomfortable the beeping is, it makes sense to have it. Not having a "END" notification would be functionally worse than having an "END" notification.
At the end of the day, I don't want to have a Blades knife, because much as blades are dangerous, they are also an essential part of a knife.
Imagine automobile makers changed the "high-beam" indicator, which is currently a blue cone shape on most dashes, and made it look like an orange "check-engine" indicator. Then place it adjacent to the actual check-engine light. When you turn your high-beams on, the indicator illuminates, appearing as though you have an engine problem while you're driving.
Tell me that wouldn't bother you, and that indicator lights are just part of the dash, and that if someone else is bothered by the fact that the check-engine and high-beam lights are the same color and shape, then they have a psychological problem...
Yes. But then someone somewhere would complain the accessibility alternative is giving them anxiety. And so on and so forth.
Instead of looking to an external solution to the problem it’s probably better to tackle the issue at the source. Because if a volume/brightness control window I trigger myself is truly giving me anxiety, the path I’m on must be really unhealthy and unsustainable in the long run. And it’s more than likely to cause me to experience anxiety about a wide variety of things. Not really a place I’d like to get to.
I’d say the first, well yes. Second, no not really.
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As you get older, change is hard, but there is one thing that medical science agrees on, and that is, forced change, makes our brain respond, and by responding, it keeps our brain health good.
Effectively, as they have always done, Apple is notifying you a change has occurred.
But that's a different situation. It's not simply changing the indicator light, it's making it confusing to distinguish one type of art light / noticatication from another.
A beter analogy would be to say that car manufacturers should remove all lights from tend dashboard, or reduce their brightness, to the point that there are difficult to notice, because the user finds the bright, distinct light uncomfortable.
Another parallel is the icon tinting / clear glass icon option in iOS 26. It's there's but it has not been popular, because, while it might be easier on the eyes, it makes it more difficult to distinguish one app icon from another, so it negative effects then functionality of the phone for many people.
Making things harder to notice damages usability, because the user has to spend too much time and effort distinguishing on evisual signal form another. They should be both clear, and clearly differentiated from one another
That's not really an option. Accommodating user preference is fine, unless it affects the primary functionality of the lights in the first place. The alert lights have a specific function - to show you what's happening. It's not advisable to make information about what's happening less obvious.
Nah, John. You haven't expressed an analogy here. You're just making a statement. You didn't draw any comparisons.
Apple didn't remove indicators or notifications, nor did they reduce brightness, or make the indicators and notifications difficult to notice. They made indicators and notifications appear too similar, and placed them all in the same location on our screen.
We all agree that screen brightness and volume changes appear as "indicators", while incoming messages and other alerts appear as "notifications", right? These are two different types of information which should not appear too similar in user interface design.
If you are using external monitor with Macbook – this external monitor has been set to main display also for the menu bar – and you want to change the brightness of the Macbook screen, then yes, as you guessed – the indicator is in the right upper corner of the external display! If your Macbook is on the left side of the external monitor, it means you automatically start to turn your head left-right to see the brightness of the Macbook screen and the indicator at the same time. I am a video editor and I constantly use my macbook screen as a reference full screen feed for Da Vinci Resolve. I also change the brightness quite often or want to check what is the brightness of the Macbook screen. So this means that my head is constantly moving and my mind is constantly asking where is the indicator on the Macbook screen?!
It's just negligence from the Apple side, sry. I've used Macbooks over 20 years, and the indicators have been in the center from day one. And now, somehow this seems old days for someone at Apple and millions of users have to cope. And for those who indicate that as now it is not in the center of the screen anymore if the display is in full screen and somehow this is better – the indicator in the center makes two thing possible at the same time: you check the brightness against the content not moving your eyes away from the center and at the same time you also see the indicator to register how far the brightness level is. Jesus, I really don't get it. Must been a hell of a day in Apple when hundreds of hardcore Apple user's eyes were looking for the indicators when they wanted to change the volume or brightness
(and subconsciously asked "wtf this change").
Thank you for this: https://github.com/dannystewart/volumeHUD
A lifesaver. Hopefully he will get a golden statue from Tim also.
It's just negligence from the Apple side, sry. I've used Macbooks over 20 years, and the indicators have been in the center from day one. And now, somehow this seems old days for someone at Apple and millions of users have to cope. And for those who indicate that as now it is not in the center of the screen anymore if the display is in full screen and somehow this is better – the indicator in the center makes two thing possible at the same time: you check the brightness against the content not moving your eyes away from the center and at the same time you also see the indicator to register how far the brightness level is. Jesus, I really don't get it. Must been a hell of a day in Apple when hundreds of hardcore Apple user's eyes were looking for the indicators when they wanted to change the volume or brightness
(and subconsciously asked "wtf this change").Thank you for this: https://github.com/dannystewart/volumeHUD
A lifesaver. Hopefully he will get a golden statue from Tim also.