Re: UI Guidelines: Dialogs (2nd draft)

[colin z robertson <c z robertson ndirect co uk>]

On Tue, Mar 06, 2001 at 06:24:49PM -0500, Liam Quin wrote:
> some things I'd like to see added:
> 
> * a dialogue box should do one thing. Don't try and put too much
>   functionality on one screen at once. Use notebook tabs if necessary.
> 
> * the dialogue should read (for Western users) left to right,
>   top to bottom.  Assume people will fill in a field and then move
>   down a line.
>   (ideally, pressing return would take you to each field or control
>   in order, then to the do-it button, then activate the button)

Agreed. I'll try to put these in at some point.


> * align controls vertically:
>       x: _______
>   width: _______
>          [blue | red | green | yellow]
> 
>   and not
>     x: _______
>     width: _______
>     [blue | red | green | yellow]
> 
>   (this sounds like a small detail, but it makes applications look
>   much slicker and more "professional", and that in turn increases
>   users' confidence)

While I agree that this is a good thing, I don't think it belongs in
the dialogs section. What I'd like to have would be a general design
and layout section covering this sort of thing.


> * remember to give the dialogue a title, and to give enough information
>   to help the user contextualise it. Imagine the user went for lunch and
>   came back to see the dialogue.
>   For example, "OK to delete file?" is hopeless, because the user won't
>   know which file, nor what the consequences are of saying yes or no.

Do people use window managers that display a title in dialogs? Should
we be using them? The Sawfish theme I'm using at the moment doesn't. I
agree though that the dialog should contain sufficient context
information.

colin

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