Media control – What ChatGPT has to say about it
Datum
1. The hard truth
A buggy media experience does not arise because bugs exist, but because users cannot form a stable mental model of the system.
If pause sometimes pauses and sometimes doesn’t, trust is lost – not patience.
2. The core rule
Buttons must only change states, never execute logic.
A button is a state switch, not a “do something now” command.
3. Allowed system states
- idle – nothing running
- playing – scene in progress
- paused – everything frozen
- ended – scene finished
The system must never be both “playing” and “paused”.
4. Button semantics
A combined play/pause button matches the user’s mental model. Reset is a hard cut.
5. Pause means stop
Pause is not a soft stop. Audio, video, and internal timers must freeze completely.
If a video keeps running, there is no pause state.
