settings for sampling at a rate vs fixed increment

Question

I am currently working on a web app for a sensor. This sensor logs a value at set increments. In the settings, I want the user to be able to change the units of time they use. I also want them to be able to choose from logging at a rate, such as twice per second, or logging at a fixed interval, such as logging every two seconds. Currently, I have a drop down menu with the following items:

• / second
• / minute
• / hour
• seconds
• minutes
• hours

After they have selected one of these items, they enter the number in a box below. For example, if they chose the first option in the dropdown menu and the number 6, it would log 6 times per second. If they chose the 4th item in the dropdown menu and the number 6, it would log every 6 seconds.

After they have chosen a setting, text comes up confirming the setting they have chosen. However, I worry that this is not very user friendly and the user will not understand the difference between '/ second' and 'seconds' the first time they use the app. Can anyone suggest a more user-friendly way of giving the users the same options?

Answer 1

You are asking the User to specify the frequency at which logging should occur. There is a unit of measurement for frequency: Hertz. Perhaps in the context of your app and its domain the use of the concept frequency and unit of measurement for it in Hertz is acceptable (User-base is educated and able to grasp simple mathematical and scientific concepts such as time and frequency)? Then you could simply prompt for a single value in Hertz.

Sticking with the approach you have, perhaps a wizard-style form input that helps build a human-readable sentence would work well? For example, something like this (2 states for the same form provided in image):