Re: User interface suggestions

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Jeff Waugh wrote:

> Slash(MeatForge)Dot recently posted some screenshots gleaned from Whistler,
> and one that caught my eye was in fact, the log out dialogue:
> 
>   http://www.m0ss.com/Images/Whistler2250/logoff.jpg

Cute, although they certainly didn't immediately strike me as being
clickable buttons-- but I'm sure Jo(e) User would work it out
eventually  :o)

Again, though, how does this style generalise to other dialogs?  It
works here because the implicit "question" is simple (the dialog's title
is sufficient), and so are the answers-- so no other controls are
required in the dialog. (Although there is no obvious keyboard
interface, which would be an accessibility issue for an
industrial-strength desktop).  

So yes, as a clear, simple design in this one-off case, it does indeed
look quite fetching, reduces the number of controls to the absolute
minimum, and would be unlikely to catch anyone out.

But imagine trying to design (and use) dialogs if every button in every
dialog looked like that, taking up two or three times the space it
needed to, distorting your visual scanning pattern with its lack of
clear alignment points, and potentially being confused with any other
static imagery in the dialog.  Even just trying to add GNOME's "Save
session" checkbox to the Whistler example proves to be a bit of a
challenge... wherever you put it, it's either dwarfed by the button
imagery, or appears to be floating aimlessly in space and unrelated to
any of the other controls (even if you line up the box's edge with the
"edge" of one of the circles)...

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, User Interface Designer  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