When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

• Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
• Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
• Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
• Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

• Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
• Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
• Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
• Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.

I get into this situation sometimes. Maybe you do too. I merge feature work into a branch used to collect features, and then continue development but on that branch instead of back on the feature branch

and have to move those commits to the feature branch they belong in and take them out of the throwaway accumulator branch

Maybe you prefer

over

Either way, that works. But it'd be nicer if we didn't have to type or even remember the branches' names and the remote's name. They are what is keeping this from being a context-independent string of commands you run any time this mistake happens. That's what we're going to solve here.

Shorthands for longevity

I like to use all possible natively supported shorthands. There are two broad motivations for that.

1. Fingers have a limited number of movements in them. Save as many as possible left late in life.
2. Current research suggests that multitasking has detrimental effects on memory. Development tends to be very heavy on multitasking. Maybe relieving some of the pressure on quick-access short term memory (like knowing all relevant branch names) add up to leave a healthier memory down the line.

First up for our scenario: the - shorthand, which refers to the previously checked out branch. There are a few places we can't use it, but it helps a lot:

We cannot use - when cherry-picking a range

and even if we could we'd still have provide the remote's name (here, origin).

That shorthand doesn't apply in the later reset --hard command, and we cannot use it in the branch -D && checkout approach either. branch -D does not support the - shorthand and once the branch is deleted checkout can't reach it with -:

So we have to remember the remote's name (we know it's origin because we are devoting memory space to knowing that this isn't one of those times it's something else), the remote tracking branch's name, the local branch's name, and we're typing those all out. No good! Let's figure out some shorthands.

@{-<n>} is hard to say but easy to fall in love with

We can do a little better by using @{-<n>} (you'll also sometimes see it referred to be the older @{-N}). It is a special construct for referring to the nth previously checked out ref.

Back in our scenario, we're on qa-environment, we switch to feature, and then want to refer to qa-environment. That's @{-1}! So instead of

We can do

Here's where we are (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1})

One down, two to go: we're still relying on memory for the remote's name and the remote branch's name and we're still typing both out in full. Can we replace those with generic shorthands?

@{-1} is the ref itself, not the ref's name, we can't do

because there is no branch origin/@{-1}. For the same reason, @{-1} does not give us a generalized shorthand for the scenario's later git reset --hard origin/qa-environment command.

But good news!

Do @{u} @{push}

@{upstream} or its shorthand @{u} is the remote branch a that would be pulled from if git pull were run. @{push} is the remote branch that would be pushed to if git push was run.

we can

Tacking either onto a branch name will give that branch's @{upstream} or @{push}. For example

is the branch branch-a pulls from.

In the common workflow where a branch pulls from and pushes to the same branch, @{upstream} and @{push} will be the same, leaving @{u} as preferable for its terseness. @{push} shines in triangular workflows where you pull from one remote and push to another (see the external links below).

Going back to our scenario, it means short, portable commands with a minimum human memory footprint. (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1}, 😎 marks the wins from @{u}.)

Make the things you repeat the easiest to do

Because these commands are generalized, we can run some series of them once, maybe

or

and then those will be in the shell history just waiting to be retrieved and run again the next time, whether with CtrlR incremental search or history substring searching bound to the up arrow or however your interactive shell is configured. Or make it an alias, or even better an abbreviation if your interactive shell supports them. Save the body wear and tear, give memory a break, and level up in Git.

And keep going

The GitHub blog has a good primer on triangular workflows and how they can polish your process of contributing to external projects.

The FreeBSD Wiki has a more in-depth article on triangular workflow process (though it doesn't know about @{push} and @{upstream}).

The construct @{-<n>} and the suffixes @{push} and @{upstream} are all part of the gitrevisions spec. Direct links to each:

• @{-<n>}
  

• @{push}
  

• @{upstream}
  

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

• Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
• Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

• Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

• The mute button is an icon rather than words.
• The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
• The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
• As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

• Pros:
  • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
  • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
  • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
• Potential Cons:
  • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

• Pros:
  • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
• Unrelated Con:
  • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬
    

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

• Meet
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
  • Windows: Control + D
• Teams
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• Zoom
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
  • Windows: Alt + A
  • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

• Cisco Webex Meetings
  • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• GoToMeeting
  • Mac: No keyboard shortcut?
  • Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!

When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

• Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
• Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
• Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
• Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

• Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
• Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
• Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
• Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.

I get into this situation sometimes. Maybe you do too. I merge feature work into a branch used to collect features, and then continue development but on that branch instead of back on the feature branch

and have to move those commits to the feature branch they belong in and take them out of the throwaway accumulator branch

Maybe you prefer

over

Either way, that works. But it'd be nicer if we didn't have to type or even remember the branches' names and the remote's name. They are what is keeping this from being a context-independent string of commands you run any time this mistake happens. That's what we're going to solve here.

Shorthands for longevity

I like to use all possible natively supported shorthands. There are two broad motivations for that.

1. Fingers have a limited number of movements in them. Save as many as possible left late in life.
2. Current research suggests that multitasking has detrimental effects on memory. Development tends to be very heavy on multitasking. Maybe relieving some of the pressure on quick-access short term memory (like knowing all relevant branch names) add up to leave a healthier memory down the line.

First up for our scenario: the - shorthand, which refers to the previously checked out branch. There are a few places we can't use it, but it helps a lot:

We cannot use - when cherry-picking a range

and even if we could we'd still have provide the remote's name (here, origin).

That shorthand doesn't apply in the later reset --hard command, and we cannot use it in the branch -D && checkout approach either. branch -D does not support the - shorthand and once the branch is deleted checkout can't reach it with -:

So we have to remember the remote's name (we know it's origin because we are devoting memory space to knowing that this isn't one of those times it's something else), the remote tracking branch's name, the local branch's name, and we're typing those all out. No good! Let's figure out some shorthands.

@{-<n>} is hard to say but easy to fall in love with

We can do a little better by using @{-<n>} (you'll also sometimes see it referred to be the older @{-N}). It is a special construct for referring to the nth previously checked out ref.

Back in our scenario, we're on qa-environment, we switch to feature, and then want to refer to qa-environment. That's @{-1}! So instead of

We can do

Here's where we are (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1})

One down, two to go: we're still relying on memory for the remote's name and the remote branch's name and we're still typing both out in full. Can we replace those with generic shorthands?

@{-1} is the ref itself, not the ref's name, we can't do

because there is no branch origin/@{-1}. For the same reason, @{-1} does not give us a generalized shorthand for the scenario's later git reset --hard origin/qa-environment command.

But good news!

Do @{u} @{push}

@{upstream} or its shorthand @{u} is the remote branch a that would be pulled from if git pull were run. @{push} is the remote branch that would be pushed to if git push was run.

we can

Tacking either onto a branch name will give that branch's @{upstream} or @{push}. For example

is the branch branch-a pulls from.

In the common workflow where a branch pulls from and pushes to the same branch, @{upstream} and @{push} will be the same, leaving @{u} as preferable for its terseness. @{push} shines in triangular workflows where you pull from one remote and push to another (see the external links below).

Going back to our scenario, it means short, portable commands with a minimum human memory footprint. (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1}, 😎 marks the wins from @{u}.)

Make the things you repeat the easiest to do

Because these commands are generalized, we can run some series of them once, maybe

or

and then those will be in the shell history just waiting to be retrieved and run again the next time, whether with CtrlR incremental search or history substring searching bound to the up arrow or however your interactive shell is configured. Or make it an alias, or even better an abbreviation if your interactive shell supports them. Save the body wear and tear, give memory a break, and level up in Git.

And keep going

The GitHub blog has a good primer on triangular workflows and how they can polish your process of contributing to external projects.

The FreeBSD Wiki has a more in-depth article on triangular workflow process (though it doesn't know about @{push} and @{upstream}).

The construct @{-<n>} and the suffixes @{push} and @{upstream} are all part of the gitrevisions spec. Direct links to each:

• @{-<n>}
  

• @{push}
  

• @{upstream}
  

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

• Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
• Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

• Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

• The mute button is an icon rather than words.
• The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
• The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
• As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

• Pros:
  • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
  • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
  • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
• Potential Cons:
  • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

• Pros:
  • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
• Unrelated Con:
  • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬
    

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

• Meet
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
  • Windows: Control + D
• Teams
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• Zoom
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
  • Windows: Alt + A
  • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

• Cisco Webex Meetings
  • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• GoToMeeting
  • Mac: No keyboard shortcut?
  • Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!

When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

• Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
• Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
• Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
• Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

• Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
• Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
• Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
• Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.

I get into this situation sometimes. Maybe you do too. I merge feature work into a branch used to collect features, and then continue development but on that branch instead of back on the feature branch

and have to move those commits to the feature branch they belong in and take them out of the throwaway accumulator branch

Maybe you prefer

over

Either way, that works. But it'd be nicer if we didn't have to type or even remember the branches' names and the remote's name. They are what is keeping this from being a context-independent string of commands you run any time this mistake happens. That's what we're going to solve here.

Shorthands for longevity

I like to use all possible natively supported shorthands. There are two broad motivations for that.

1. Fingers have a limited number of movements in them. Save as many as possible left late in life.
2. Current research suggests that multitasking has detrimental effects on memory. Development tends to be very heavy on multitasking. Maybe relieving some of the pressure on quick-access short term memory (like knowing all relevant branch names) add up to leave a healthier memory down the line.

First up for our scenario: the - shorthand, which refers to the previously checked out branch. There are a few places we can't use it, but it helps a lot:

We cannot use - when cherry-picking a range

and even if we could we'd still have provide the remote's name (here, origin).

That shorthand doesn't apply in the later reset --hard command, and we cannot use it in the branch -D && checkout approach either. branch -D does not support the - shorthand and once the branch is deleted checkout can't reach it with -:

So we have to remember the remote's name (we know it's origin because we are devoting memory space to knowing that this isn't one of those times it's something else), the remote tracking branch's name, the local branch's name, and we're typing those all out. No good! Let's figure out some shorthands.

@{-<n>} is hard to say but easy to fall in love with

We can do a little better by using @{-<n>} (you'll also sometimes see it referred to be the older @{-N}). It is a special construct for referring to the nth previously checked out ref.

Back in our scenario, we're on qa-environment, we switch to feature, and then want to refer to qa-environment. That's @{-1}! So instead of

We can do

Here's where we are (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1})

One down, two to go: we're still relying on memory for the remote's name and the remote branch's name and we're still typing both out in full. Can we replace those with generic shorthands?

@{-1} is the ref itself, not the ref's name, we can't do

because there is no branch origin/@{-1}. For the same reason, @{-1} does not give us a generalized shorthand for the scenario's later git reset --hard origin/qa-environment command.

But good news!

Do @{u} @{push}

@{upstream} or its shorthand @{u} is the remote branch a that would be pulled from if git pull were run. @{push} is the remote branch that would be pushed to if git push was run.

we can

Tacking either onto a branch name will give that branch's @{upstream} or @{push}. For example

is the branch branch-a pulls from.

In the common workflow where a branch pulls from and pushes to the same branch, @{upstream} and @{push} will be the same, leaving @{u} as preferable for its terseness. @{push} shines in triangular workflows where you pull from one remote and push to another (see the external links below).

Going back to our scenario, it means short, portable commands with a minimum human memory footprint. (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1}, 😎 marks the wins from @{u}.)

Make the things you repeat the easiest to do

Because these commands are generalized, we can run some series of them once, maybe

or

and then those will be in the shell history just waiting to be retrieved and run again the next time, whether with CtrlR incremental search or history substring searching bound to the up arrow or however your interactive shell is configured. Or make it an alias, or even better an abbreviation if your interactive shell supports them. Save the body wear and tear, give memory a break, and level up in Git.

And keep going

The GitHub blog has a good primer on triangular workflows and how they can polish your process of contributing to external projects.

The FreeBSD Wiki has a more in-depth article on triangular workflow process (though it doesn't know about @{push} and @{upstream}).

The construct @{-<n>} and the suffixes @{push} and @{upstream} are all part of the gitrevisions spec. Direct links to each:

• @{-<n>}
  

• @{push}
  

• @{upstream}
  

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

• Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
• Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

• Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

• The mute button is an icon rather than words.
• The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
• The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
• As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

• Pros:
  • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
  • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
  • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
• Potential Cons:
  • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

• Pros:
  • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
• Unrelated Con:
  • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬
    

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

• Meet
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
  • Windows: Control + D
• Teams
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• Zoom
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
  • Windows: Alt + A
  • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

• Cisco Webex Meetings
  • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• GoToMeeting
  • Mac: No keyboard shortcut?
  • Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!

When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

• Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
• Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
• Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
• Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

• Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
• Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
• Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
• Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.

I get into this situation sometimes. Maybe you do too. I merge feature work into a branch used to collect features, and then continue development but on that branch instead of back on the feature branch

and have to move those commits to the feature branch they belong in and take them out of the throwaway accumulator branch

Maybe you prefer

over

Either way, that works. But it'd be nicer if we didn't have to type or even remember the branches' names and the remote's name. They are what is keeping this from being a context-independent string of commands you run any time this mistake happens. That's what we're going to solve here.

Shorthands for longevity

I like to use all possible natively supported shorthands. There are two broad motivations for that.

1. Fingers have a limited number of movements in them. Save as many as possible left late in life.
2. Current research suggests that multitasking has detrimental effects on memory. Development tends to be very heavy on multitasking. Maybe relieving some of the pressure on quick-access short term memory (like knowing all relevant branch names) add up to leave a healthier memory down the line.

First up for our scenario: the - shorthand, which refers to the previously checked out branch. There are a few places we can't use it, but it helps a lot:

We cannot use - when cherry-picking a range

and even if we could we'd still have provide the remote's name (here, origin).

That shorthand doesn't apply in the later reset --hard command, and we cannot use it in the branch -D && checkout approach either. branch -D does not support the - shorthand and once the branch is deleted checkout can't reach it with -:

So we have to remember the remote's name (we know it's origin because we are devoting memory space to knowing that this isn't one of those times it's something else), the remote tracking branch's name, the local branch's name, and we're typing those all out. No good! Let's figure out some shorthands.

@{-<n>} is hard to say but easy to fall in love with

We can do a little better by using @{-<n>} (you'll also sometimes see it referred to be the older @{-N}). It is a special construct for referring to the nth previously checked out ref.

Back in our scenario, we're on qa-environment, we switch to feature, and then want to refer to qa-environment. That's @{-1}! So instead of

We can do

Here's where we are (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1})

One down, two to go: we're still relying on memory for the remote's name and the remote branch's name and we're still typing both out in full. Can we replace those with generic shorthands?

@{-1} is the ref itself, not the ref's name, we can't do

because there is no branch origin/@{-1}. For the same reason, @{-1} does not give us a generalized shorthand for the scenario's later git reset --hard origin/qa-environment command.

But good news!

Do @{u} @{push}

@{upstream} or its shorthand @{u} is the remote branch a that would be pulled from if git pull were run. @{push} is the remote branch that would be pushed to if git push was run.

we can

Tacking either onto a branch name will give that branch's @{upstream} or @{push}. For example

is the branch branch-a pulls from.

In the common workflow where a branch pulls from and pushes to the same branch, @{upstream} and @{push} will be the same, leaving @{u} as preferable for its terseness. @{push} shines in triangular workflows where you pull from one remote and push to another (see the external links below).

Going back to our scenario, it means short, portable commands with a minimum human memory footprint. (🎉 marks wins from -, 💥 marks the win from @{-1}, 😎 marks the wins from @{u}.)

Make the things you repeat the easiest to do

Because these commands are generalized, we can run some series of them once, maybe

or

and then those will be in the shell history just waiting to be retrieved and run again the next time, whether with CtrlR incremental search or history substring searching bound to the up arrow or however your interactive shell is configured. Or make it an alias, or even better an abbreviation if your interactive shell supports them. Save the body wear and tear, give memory a break, and level up in Git.

And keep going

The GitHub blog has a good primer on triangular workflows and how they can polish your process of contributing to external projects.

The FreeBSD Wiki has a more in-depth article on triangular workflow process (though it doesn't know about @{push} and @{upstream}).

The construct @{-<n>} and the suffixes @{push} and @{upstream} are all part of the gitrevisions spec. Direct links to each:

• @{-<n>}
  

• @{push}
  

• @{upstream}
  

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

• Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
• Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

• Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

• The mute button is an icon rather than words.
• The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
• The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
• As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

• Pros:
  • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
  • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
  • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
• Potential Cons:
  • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

• Pros:
  • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
  • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
• Cons:
  • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
• Unrelated Con:
  • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬
    

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

• Meet
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
  • Windows: Control + D
• Teams
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• Zoom
  • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
  • Windows: Alt + A
  • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

• Cisco Webex Meetings
  • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
• GoToMeeting
  • Mac: No keyboard shortcut?
  • Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!