Re: Comments on dialog proposal

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Michael Rogers wrote:
> > That's actually why I think "Close" is best suited in an instant-apply
> > dialog. It relates only to the displaying/removal of the dialog, not
> > whether settings are applied or discarded.
>
> So it's better because it supplies less information? 'OK' indicates
> acceptance of the settings. 'Done' indicates completion of the task.
> What does 'Close' indicate about the contents of the dialog? Only that
> they will no longer be visible.

Yes, and that's my point. "OK" implies "apply these changes and close
the dialog". But they have already been applied, so what does "OK" in
this case really do? That may not be entirely clear to the user. So yes,
I think less [possibly confusing] information is better in this case.
Also, as Adam pointed out, labeling something "Done" or "OK" may be
misleading in that it gives the impression that changes are not applied
until you exit the dialog by pressing these buttons.


> It may not be obvious that the changes have already been applied (eg
> tooltip, sound card fragment size, password), so the user needs to know
> whether settings are going to be applied or discarded when the dialog is
> closed.

And at the same time it is probably useful for the user to know when
changes are applied (instantly or when exiting the dialog). In the case
of not very visible settings, labelling buttons "OK" or "Done" IMHO
makes this problem worse, for the reasons above.


Christian