Re: System settings layouts (Universal Access proposal)

[Christian Giordano <christian giordano canonical com>]

Hi Allan, taking hopefully all your suggestions into account, here a new wireframe: http://ubuntuone.com/0qYUrJzqAaZ0VmVAb3Yv2c

As I said earlier, I think that a divider graphics would help to have something nicer. I would reconsider your choice of not using any.

Any comment?

Best, chr

On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Allan Day <allanpday gmail com> wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for the mockup, Christian. I agree that the layout of this
panel could be improved. Let me also say that it's great to have
someone contributing design - welcome!

We should set you up with access to the GNOME design repositories [1]
if you're going to be making more GNOME contributions.

...

> 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.
> 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.
> Is not clear where "Turn on accessibility features from the keyboard"
> belongs
> On Screen Keyboard is a clearer header than Typing Assistant (which is too
> generic)

...

I agree with all of this.

> 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)

...

Not sure about that. Happy to discuss though.

I find that this kind of discussion is more effective on IRC than a
mailing list, but we've got a thread here and I'm not able to be
online much today (I'm busy fighting a cold!) Overall the design looks
like it is heading in the right direction. Some things that could be
improved:

 * It would be nicer to have the switches close to the feature headers.

 * The positioning of the switches also makes it unclear that they
affect the sensitivity of the controls below

 * Can you use whitespace to separate each section rather than
dividers (this is standard practice for GNOME design)?

 * The layout feels a bit tightly packed in some areas.

 * It is difficult to distinguish the configuration options and the
descriptions.

 * Could you use a standard text box for the test area?

Hope that helps,

Allan

[1] https://github.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/
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