I feel that it is too difficult to see the gray highlighted selection box that is used to indicate the current selection in the hands-free scroll wheel menus. There is just not enough contrast provided by this gray highlight mechanism to make it standout easily. This poor visibility is even worse when standing (i.e., my normal live playing approach), as the steeper viewing angle when standing instead of sitting makes the gray highlight box become even less visible, and I find I have to step back two steps in order to clearly see the highlighted selection box, or bend over to see it.
In addition to the obvious usability issue, this “quirk” also limits the Aeros to installation on flat pedalboards, as an angled pedalboard further steepens the viewing angle and exacerbate the low contrast problem. I tested this at home, and yes- the Aeros menu selection visibility is even worse on an angled board, which I vastly prefer over flat boards for their cable and power management advantages.
I found a similar issue/ change request post from Quad from March 2023 in the forum (see below). Quad also wrote a post in 2021 about same basic problem with the poor contrast of the gray highlight box mechanism in the song selection menu. SS Support marked the post as “under consideration”, but I am writing to hopefully add urgency to the issue (as it presents a serious usability problem for hands-free menu operation), as well as to add additional suggestions for potential remedies to the good ideas that Quad offered…
In addition to Quad’s suggestions (which I agree with) to…
a) add a bright selection outline box to the current selection
b) keep the current selection anchored in the center of the menu “wheel” and rotate the menu options through the fixed-in-center selection box
… I’d like to add additional suggestions for consideration.
c) the Aeros’ use of bright green color to highlight the active track is very effective, and visibly jumps right out to the eye. How about using bright green to indicate the currently selected menu option? This could be executed in several different ways, any of which would be a significant usability impreovement:
- use bright green for the outline box suggested by Quad
- change the current gray background highlighting to a bright
green highlight box - when a menu option is currently selected / highlighted, change
the white font used for the menu option name to bright green
font (with this latter approach, can keep the gray highlight box)
quoted post:
"Quad
[Mar 9](Impossible to see/hard to scroll to onscreen selection of settings and other?
Two related issues make this a problem:
- The gray box that indicates “selected” is hard to see …
especially when th Aeros is on the floor on an angled pedal
board (viewing angle issue that may vary across batches of
display panels). Recommendation: Add a high contrast element
to indicate selected (bright (white?) border box, bright
line/arrow/icon on the left side, etc.) - The position of the selected item is not always in the center.
Combining scroll and selection hs some tradeoffs. I think
solving #1 above may be enough, but consider this behavior as
well."