When to show tangible controls in Preferences

[jessegreenberg]

Sorry if this issue is a duplicate, but I didn't see another related to this.

It seems like the "Input" tab of preferences should probably only be shown when there is a device connection.

I think it will be distracting to QA so I am going to go ahead with hiding the Input tab unless ?deviceConnection is present.

@BLFiedler do you agree with this or did you have something else in mind?

[jessegreenberg]

It will only be shown with ?deviceConnection with the above commit.

[brettfiedler]

I believe we off-hand mentioned this, yes. This should be the correct behavior. If it's helpful to have, we may consider activating for camera input hands, but not relevant currently.

[brettfiedler]

Just to note, the deviceGridSpacing parameter present when deviceConnection is enabled does affect the spacing for cameraInput=hands. I took advantage of this when making a link to share before any action was taken on #258

e.g., https://phet-dev.colorado.edu/html/quadrilateral/1.0.0-dev.74/phet/quadrilateral_all_phet_debug.html?cameraInput=hands&showVideo&deviceConnection&deviceGridSpacing=0.25

[brettfiedler]

@BLFiedler, check the Input tab for clarity to teacher audience. In conjunction with #301 .

We'll need to make sure this tab is accessible to. I'll tag in TS when that's ready.

[brettfiedler]

Similar action has to be done for #258 changes that will pull in Input tab for Camera Input Hands. It needs updating for this sim and Voicing strings.

[terracoda]

@BLFiedler these slider controls are pretty cryptic. When we tackle #258, we'll update this part of the Preferences dialog as well.

[terracoda]

I do not understand what these controls do, so I am not sure how to describe them.

Here are start:

Tangible Input
Use slider controls to adjust the behavior of the sim object the tangible device controls.

Position Interval? [0.0125 - 0.2500]
Make the sim respond to smaller or larger tangible device changes.

Smoothing length? [1 - 10]
Reduce sim object jitter by increase by decreasing or increasing smoothing value?

Update interval [0 - 1]
Adjust how often you hear voiced updates about changes?

[terracoda]

If possible, it would be good if the displayed ranges were all the same or all ranges with whole numbers. If we can do that, maybe we can just read out the numbers as the change?

[brettfiedler]

@jessegreenberg,

• Let's update the description of the sliders and the names in some cases (see below)
• Tick marks please

Device Communication Controls
Use slider controls to adjust the mapping and communication parameters between the simulation and BLE-enabled device to reduce noise-related jitter.

Step Interval [0.0125 - 0.2500]
Adjust minimum distance required by device to step a vertex in the simulation.

Number of Smoothing Values [1 - 10]
Adjust number of values used to smooth noise in incoming sensor values from a device.

Sim Update Interval [0 - 1]
Adjust the time interval for accepting new values from the device in the simulation.

[jessegreenberg]

I realized I was not sure if the content in #315 (comment) was for Voicing or if it was for visual text? I assumed visual text but now realize that might not be right.

This is what it looks like now. The sliders do not support Voicing, is that important for this?

@terracoda I added tick marks at 1/10th intervals along the range, is that what you had in mind?

[jessegreenberg]

@terracoda I realized that I didn't make the units dynamic for the update interval control. That logic was added in the above commit.

[terracoda]

Hey @jessegreenberg, I know I said it doesn't have to be perfect, but if the following things are relatively simple, can you address them?

With Voicing on:

• When I activate step arrows on the ends of the sliders with a mouse, I don't hear the update. It works fine with the keyboard. Can you make it voice the same thing (Name Response + Object Response) with mouse input? The buttons do not need individual unique names. They are not accessible to the keyboard, and HOPEFULLY, that keeps them hidden from screen readers.

Hey @brettfiedler, the slider name repeats with each step, so I am going to shorten the 3-word names to 2 words. I think the help text explains the function of the sliders nicely, so the shorter names feel good to me.

Please let me know if you do not agree with renaming:

• Step Mapping <- from "Step Interval Mapping"
• Update Interval <- from "Update Interval"

[terracoda]

"1 values" should be "1 value", too.

[jessegreenberg]

@terracoda and I met to discuss. We went ahead with the wording changes, though they can be modified if @brettfiedler has recommendations.

I also added Voicing responses to the NumberControl arrow buttons. Back to @terracoda for review and @brettfiedler for the comment in #315 (comment).

[brettfiedler]

Fine with all changes. Descriptions are long, but there isn't and may not be proper documentation for it for some time. Over to TS to review and close.

[terracoda]

@jessegreenberg, I am hearing responses when I press the arrow buttons, now. Thanks!

Just so, I understand your comment from #315 (comment)

These controls ignore voicing response options so object responses are always spoken regardless of Preferences settings.

By "These controls", do you mean all controls in the Preferences menu?

[terracoda]

This issue can be closed. The controls are Voicing as expected and everything is screen reader accessible.

I just have a question for @jessegreenberg in previous #315 (comment)

[jessegreenberg]

I meant the controls that we added for this issue. It has to be done manually and I was just noting that it was considered.

[terracoda]

Thanks @jessegreenberg, closing.