Re: new highcontrast widgets?

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 6 Nov 2007, at 14:20, Andreas Nilsson wrote:

> Willie Walker wrote:
> > Hi Peter:
> >
> > Most definitely agreed on bringing users in -- it's something  
> > we've done with Orca since day one and it works very well.  In my  
> > experience working directly with end users, however, I've found  
> > that specific examples serve as a better foundation for discussion  
> > than a generalized problem statement.
> >
> > So, in order to better avoid overgeneralizing the problem/solution  
> > too soon, I'd like to have some specific examples of dialogs with  
> > "Close" buttons that are under consideration for removal.  With  
> > these, we can go to the Orca user's list and have a discussion.
> >
> > Andreas, do you have examples of dialogs whose "Close" buttons  
> > might be removed?
> Hi!
> This was something that was brought up during Ubuntu Developer  
> Summit in some of the Desktop meetings, where Matthew Paul Thomas  
> suggested that it would be good to get rid of the several ways to  
> close a window in order to reduce duplication of information in  
> some dialogs we were designing.

Indeed.  FWIW, Matthew also agrees that Esc shouldn't close such  
windows:

"Because an instant-apply window isn't a dialog, it's inappropriate  
for it
    to disppear with Enter or Escape (see also bug 302057), so it  
consumes an
    access key that then can't be used by any other control in any  
tab in any
    pane of the window."  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi? 
id=302076

> Does anyone know how other operating systems, like OSX solve this  
> issue?

The guideline-approved shortcut for Close in OS X is Cmd-W, which  
works everywhere there's a close button in the titlebar (much like  
Alt-F4 in metacity).  Esc usually activates Cancel buttons, although  
last time I checked the OS X guidelines didn't say whether Cancel  
actually ought to have a shortcut or not-- it's certainly not  
mentioned here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

The Windows guidelines explicitly say Esc for Cancel and Alt-F4 for  
Close, but Windows apps don't tend to have the kind of dialog we're  
talking about here.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems