Re: [Usability] Disclosure triangles

[Liam Quin <liam holoweb net>]

On Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 05:18:43AM +1100, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> This idea - disclosing only further information, not providing more
> interactive widgets - seems pretty solid. Anyone have *good* examples
> proving the opposite; of disclosure triangles being used to hide extra
> widgets?

This paradigm was used extensively in Sun's open look desktop -- a dialogue
box would have a button amrked "+", and if you pressed it, the dialogue
would grow smoothly to show more controls.  These controls were usually
for settings that most people wouldn't need, or that would be only
occasiobnally needed compared to the others.

To me, it felt like some video recorders and sound equipment, with a flap
you can lift to reveal controls for tuning or adjusting vertical sync :-)

The Motif interface, with chunkier controls, felt more like a ghetto
blaster.

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Core staff contact, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net www.valinor.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org www.advogato.org
Author, Open Source XML Database Toolkit, Wiley August 2000
Co-author: The XML Specification Guide, Wiley 1999; Mastering XML, Sybex 2001