Re: [Usability] Button Layout in Dialogs, vertical button bar on the right?

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

In those dialogs, the buttons you are talking about, are usually
add/remove or similar buttons, relating to the widget directly to
the left of the column of buttons in question. In the theme capplet,
these buttons generally directly reflect the view in the list, directly
next to the buttons. This is the same for the Search/Folder/Filter
editor dialogs in Evolution. In some places, it doesn't necessarily
make much sense. The "details" dialog in the theme capplet for example.
The "Go to Theme Folder" button has no real relation at all to the list.
The closest possible argument, is that the items inside of the folder,
may or may not affect individiual "details" theme lists. I think it's
safe to say that the button doesn't belong on the upper right in the
notebook tabs in the "Theme Details" dialog.

Moving the OK/Cancel/etc... buttons to the right hand side, would only
make things even more terribly confusing for our users, I think.

-- dobey

> P.S.  Anyone know of an easy to use key logger or click counter, something
> like to gather data on my own usage patterns?  If there was something I
> could compile into my applications to gather usage data I might be
> interested to give that a try but in the short term I'm just looking for
> something simple, a step up from the odometer panel applet.

The "timeline" module in CVS might be of help. It lets you visualize the
applications you spend your time in, in a neat little timeline. :)