When I wrote about volume controls in video and audio players earlier this year, it was because my friend Tim Nekritz tweeted about the lack of volume control for desktop/laptops on the National Public Radio (NPR) First Listen site.
I decided to investigate and found out NPR wasn’t the only site without volume control on their audio player.
SoundCloud also used an audio player with no option for volume control, see comment from Nigel Wade for update on SoundCloud volume control.
I hoped this wasn’t a trend:
Providing controls to adjust volume is as important as providing controls to play, pause, and start audio or video.
Lack of volume control on a video/audio player for the desktop or laptop computer is a usability issue.
Users are accustomed to controlling what they listen to or watch on their desktop/laptop. For those users, that means a player that allows users to:
- Play
- Pause
- Manage volume
Users shouldn’t be forced to use their desktop/laptop volume controls, and risk missing other audio notifications because their only option is to manage audio at the desktop level.
Two Months Later
Sadly, nothing has changed in the past two months.
NPR’s First Listen section still has no volume control. Their player has three controls: combined play/pause, replay last 15 seconds, and a non-working (at least for me on desktop) skip control.
SoundCloud has one combined control for play and pause in the track you’re playing; no volume control is included in their player volume control can be found at the bottom of the screen.
What You Can Do
If you want volume control back in NPR and SoundCloud audio players, my recommendation is to contact their customer service department.
Reach out to both companies on Facebook or Twitter or whatever social media channel you use.
Add your comments to their contact forms/help forums and let them know you want volume control back in the player.
Here are some of their sites:
- NPR online contact form
- NPR Twitter account
SoundCloud help forum: there are several volume control threads in the forum that you can add to (some get closed after a specific time), or start your own. Here’s a volume control message from earlier this month.SoundCloud Support Twitter account
Post updated June 22, 2016, thanks to a comment from Nigel Wade about location of SoundCloud’s volume control. Based on the number of other SoundCloud users who have complained about the volume control, I’m not the only one who couldn’t find it.
Volume Controls Available on NPR Audio Player with Chrome Extension
Shoutout to TJ Hillard who sent me a tweet today (December 11, 2016) about his new Chrome extension that adds volume controls to the NPR audio player.
Here’s how the volume control displays in the player, with a slider the user can drag to increase or decrease the volume.
Thank you, TJ!
Soundcloud does have a volume control, always has had as far as I can remember. You may possibly be missing the fact that the player is that bottom of the screen.
Hi Nigel,
Thank you for your comment. I went back to the Soundcloud site, and thanks to your comment, I found the volume control! Thank you for pointing out where the volume control was located, I didn’t realize it was at the bottom of the screen. I expected the control to be in the soundtrack I was playing, next to the play control. I’ll update the post, thanks again!
I have been using Soundcloud for many years and when they changed the interface it flummoxed me for a long time because the soundwave graphic that you can click on to play the track used to be the player.
With the new layout you can however navigate around the site and the player remains at the bottom of the screen. In the earlier version you had to stay on the page that had the track you were listening to.
I do think that it could be more apparent though, it is slightly counter-intuitive.
I agree. For me, I expected the control to be near the play control for the track. I didn’t think to look to the bottom of the screen.
Yes, you’re right, Nigel. It could be more apparent.