Re: [Usability] Instant Apply Windows

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

For what it's worth, I've been asking around here at Sun to see if we
have any sort of data on the whole instant apply thing.  I haven't found
anything formal so far, but here's what Robin Jeffries (one of the most
experienced UI gurus in our User Experience office) told me:

"In OpenLook, no (correctly designed) dialog boxes had a control that
was purely to close the window-- there was the pushpin control in the
upper left, and that also served as a close control.  The rationale was
that it was a common enough operation that people would learn it quickly
and it saved real estate for more important things.

"My experience was that people at Sun did learn this (perhaps because
the openLook designers would come around and explain things to them),
and in fact had some problems transferring to the motif model.  However,
other users (who didn't live and die by openLook) did not. People who
had used openlook for a year would still pause and struggle with what to
do in the relatively rare situations where they needed to close a dialog
box without taking action. (And in the GNOME case, it's even harder to
learn, because it only applies in one particular type of dialog box. In
the OL situation, all Close or Cancel controls worked this way, so there
was a lot more opportunity to learn it.)  I don't think I ever did any
formal usability tests with openlook -- my first project at Sun was a
Motif project.

"But I think the accessibility issue trumps all other concerns.  This
stuff HAS to be accessible; that's one of the main motivations for
moving from CDE to GNOME.  If the accessibility people say that using
the close control is too arcane to be an accessible solution, I believe
them.  Perhaps you could make them happy if Esc always closed the
window, whether there was a close control or not, but I don't know if
that is implementable.  (It would have to be at the toolkit level, as if
you count on developers doing it, it will be worse than just using the
close control -- you'll never be able to predict when it will work.)

"The Java Guidelines dictate a Close button.  My memory/reconstruction
of the rationale is:
   - everyone else does (user expectations)
   - consistency with other dialog boxes; if you click Close in other
dialog boxes, why do you use the window control here
   - accessibility
   - in our experience, these dialog boxes are not so large that a
little extra space devoted to a Close button caused any grief to the
people laying out the window."

Cheeri.
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems