When do you use a circular slider/knob in a good user interface?

Posted by Koning Baard on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Koning Baard
Published on 2010-06-12T13:42:43Z Indexed on 2010/06/12 13:52 UTC
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user-interface

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discussion

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user-experience

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circular-slider

As I am familiar with some synthesizers, I often user real life circular sliders (e.g. to control the master volume), also called knobs. Like this one: frequency controller on radio

Sometimes I also find these controls in virtual applications (yes I like extreme minimalism =P): a simple circular slider

But most of them are irritating, confusing or just wrong, and simple sliders could be used instead, making the UI much better. What are the advantages of circular sliders like the one in the screenshot above? And when do you use them? Thanks

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