Re: [Usability] Instant Apply Windows

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="George">

> 'Done' is perhaps also much better then 'Close' or 'OK', since I'm saying,
> I'm done with changing things.

It's final without being destructive. :)

>    +---------------------------------------+
>    | My Crackrock Settings             _ X |
>    +---------------------------------------+
>    |                                       |
>    |   [ ] Goat-inspired                   |
>    |   [ ] Monkey-inspired                 |
>    |   [ ] Pants-inspired                  |
>    |   [ ] HP-inspired                     |
>    |                                       |
>    |   [ Help ]      [ Revert ] [ Done ]   |
>    |                                       |
>    +---------------------------------------+

> Revert is very useful since then you can mess with settings and don't have
> to worry about losing your already nice setup.  I do this quite often.
> Also say there is a long text property and I by mistake wipe it, and I
> want it to be like it was before, then Revert can save my day.

I didn't include revert, because I don't believe it significantly reduces
time costs when interacting with *well designed* instant apply windows.
(That's a pretty important distinction -> revert helps when the window is
not designed well in the first place.)

The long text property you brought up is a good example of an inappropriate
instant apply property. At which point do you apply? After every letter, or
when the focus changes away from the widget? It's a tough one, and you might
find different properties demanding different behaviours, which is always a
troublesome thing to deal with as a user.

Network settings is a great example of properties you can not easily
simplify, and will not work within the context of instant apply. Here is an
example from Mac OS X [1]:

  http://perkypants.org/screenshots/osx-ipaddress.jpg

This page is in stark contrast to most of the other pages in the System
Prefs program, because it has an Apply Now button. Thoughtfully, this button
does things like DHCP renew when you press it too.

Compare to the background settings page: [2]

  http://perkypants.org/screenshots/osx-desktop.jpg

Whenever you click an image, it is drawn on the desktop. Reverting to a
previous setting is not very hard, because you're directly interacting with
the widgets, so can simply reselect your old image. It's pretty straight
forward.

So, because the user is directly manipulating non-abstract widgets or
information, and the minimal time cost of that style of interaction, I don't
think a revert button will be needed on well-designed instant apply windows.

[ Examples to the contrary very welcome! Open my mind! :) ]

- Jeff


[1] Sorry if it's getting boring... I can show you lots of yicky stuff in it
too. I have no belief in its UI being paramount or anything.

[2] I've done a mockup of a desktop background selector based on the Mac
one. You'll notice that it doesn't include any tile / stretch / centre
options. The Mac OS X one does this automatically, determining what to do
based on the size of the image. For instance, the gnome feet background is
small, so it's automatically tiled, and large images are stretched taking
aspect ratio into account. This is really cool. My mockup includes direct
Nautilus views of the image directories selected, primarily because I think
standardising on stuff like this is good. Here it is:

  http://perkypants.org/screenshots/g2-bg-concept.jpg

Oh look, it even includes a 'Close' button instead of a 'Done' button. ;)

-- 
   You know the end is nigh when modern art is relegated to the status of   
                                  "meme".