Users seem to think this is something that must be done

Jul 15, 2019 09:57 GMT  ·  By

Little things do matter, and living proof is the volume overlay in Windows 10, which is gaining quite a lot of attention these days for a reason that makes total sense.

The design of the overlay isn’t only outdated, but it also doesn’t align with Microsoft’s push for making everything in Windows 10 easier to use, especially when analyzing some of the aspects that skilled developers out there discussed in the last few days.

Rudy Huyn, who was one of the most active developers in the UWP world and is now part of the Dropbox team, thinks that Microsoft uses an approach that doesn’t make sense in Windows 10, especially when taking into account the two volume controls in the OS.

“Should Win10 have 2 different ways to change the volume? Does it make sense to display media info when users click on Volume up/down?” he asks on Twitter.

This configuration has been around since the days of Windows 8, when Microsoft introduce a Metro-based volume overlay that continues to be available in Windows 10.

But according to Huyn, the media overlay should be removed completely and only the volume popup should be displayed when users press the physical volume button. At the same time, media info and the on-screen media controls should be moved to the Action Center, a place that Microsoft is betting big on for the future of Windows 10.

Rudy Huyn says the media info should be moved to the Action Center

As usual, skilled designers in the Windows community joined the discussion and proposed their very own approaches for the volume overlay.

This is the case of Niels Laute, who has created a media overlay UI that comes alongside the actual volume controller, which anyone can launch by clicking the volume icon in the system tray. The interface of the media overlay isn’t changed much, but instead, the design proposes an X button that lets you quickly close it.

In fact, this is one of the biggest problems with this little feature in Windows 10. The media overlay is set to automatically disappear, and users aren’t provided with an easy way to close it instantly. The design of this overlay isn’t the best either, so it eats up a significant part of the screen, covering more important areas that are otherwise used by other apps.

Having an option to dismiss the media overlay would definitely come in handy, but so would more customization settings to configure things like how much you want it to stay on screen before going away completely.

Microsoft is yet to join the debate, albeit it’s pretty clear that the media overlay needs to be addressed sooner or later.

What I think Microsoft should do is offer a mix of Rudy Huyn’s idea and more advanced customization options.

For example, I don’t think that having media info in the Action Center is the right way to go, as this requires users one additional click to access playback details and further controls. On the other hand, I do agree that pressing the media keys should fire up the actual volume controller that resides in the system tray.

Microsoft should implement more customization settings for this media overlay and let users configure things like how much this popup should stay on screen, its position, and what information to display. Needless to say, users should be able to hide it completely if they want so.

The best way to make sure that Microsoft does all of these is to make yourselves heard, so let us know in the box after the jump if and how you want this media overlay to change in the upcoming Windows feature updates.

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The volume overlay eats a large part of the screen
Rudy Huyn says the media info should be moved to the Action Center
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