What are the current HIG? [Was: GNOME 3.2 ideas and plans]

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Richard Hughes wrote:
> On 23 March 2011 11:08, Allan Day <allanpday gmail com> wrote:
> > Software aside, we really need that new version of the HIG that we've
> > been talking about (Calum has been taking this forward recently)!
> 
> In related news, I have no idea what the HIG is supposed to be for
> 3.0. Some control center panels have gray labels without the colon,
> some have black labels with the colon.

We don't specify different label colours by design, do we?

The HIG specifies that labels should have colons [1]. Maybe that should
change in the future, but I haven't heard about it.

> Some are right aligned, some
> are left aligned.

I'm not aware of there having been any changes there. Left alignment is
the default. Right alignment can be nice, but sometimes doesn't play
well with the demands of an interface (it doesn't work when you need to
use indentation, for example). If in doubt, just left align like the HIG
recommends. 

In general, the HIG can be followed just fine. Updates and changes are
covered by the application integration guidelines [2] and by the
(rudimentary!) GtkSwitch guidelines [3]. (It is fine to ignore switches
for the time being. Just ask on #gnome-design if you're unsure.)

But yes, it'll be much clearer once the new HIG is done!

Allan

[1]
http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/2.32/design-text-labels.html.en

[2] http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero/AppIntegration

[3] http://live.gnome.org/Design/Whiteboards/SwitchGuidance