Re: System settings layouts (Universal Access proposal)

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Tue, 2011-11-22 at 20:40 +0000, Christian Giordano wrote:
> Hi Bastien
> 
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 6:37 PM, Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>
> wrote:
>         > ...and added it to the dedicated page in the
>         > wiki:
>         https://live.gnome.org/Design/SystemSettings/UniversalAccess
>         
>         
>         If you have particular concerns about the layout, feel free to
>         voice
>         them, rather than dismissing all the work that's occurred
>         before.
> 
> I am voicing them

This was the part that was missing from the original mail actually.

>  and proposing solutions (this was just the first attempt, maybe there
> are other options).
> 
> 
> I know that doesn't look GNOMEy, or at least is not conformed to the
> other panels, but the more I watch them the more I believe there is a
> problem with this type of layout.
> 
> 
> Here a list of issues which I can see:
>       * Horizontal alignment of the switches with the feature header:
>         while the offset is there for hierarchical reasons, with the
>         switch widget (with such straight lines) looks almost as a
>         bug.

OK. That's unfortunate but the grouping is "header + switch" with the
description (when there is one) being tacked on, rather than the main
focus. Glancing at the screen, the feature names should jump at you, and
the switch is right there. That's what the space is for.

>       * The description of the feature is too far from the header:
>         ideally should almost be between the header and the switch. As
>         it is now looks like an introduction to the related options.

That's because the description is a rewording of the feature name.
People who need accessibility features and already have experience of
those will know the terms "bounce keys" or "visual alerts".

>       * Is not clear where "Turn on accessibility features from the
>         keyboard" belongs

Agreed. Ideas welcome here.

>       * On Screen Keyboard is a clearer header than Typing Assistant
>         (which is too generic)

That's because the typing assistant here could also have been Dasher in
the past. The a11y team wants us to reintegrate Dasher, so there's room
for this to be changed.

>       * The sliders are too wide: ergonomically speaking, they require
>         too much pointer movement and that level of precision is not
>         required (I didn't fix this in the quick mock up I did)

The sliders certainly aren't too wide for a universal access panel. And
they're about 300 pixels wide, that's hardly wide.

> I understand that in your opinion this panel is done and finished, but
> I can't help to keep looking for ways how to improve things.

Sure. But I want to see incremental improvements. Completely redesigning
one of the screens without mentioning the problems encountered is not
really helpful. It tramples on all the work that's gone on before.

For some of the smaller items above (labels, single misplaced checkbox),
feel free to create bugs and provide possible solutions to those
particular problems.

Even better than mockups would be modifying the GtkBuilder ui file and
sending patches. This way we can compare before and after.

It would also be best if you made the mockups and changes using the
upstream themes, but I don't have much hope in that happening ;)

> It would be nice to hear the opinion from other people.

Hop on #gnome-design on GIMPNet. This mailing-list is mostly technical,
I don't expect very many designers to hang out here (or they agree with
me).

Cheers