Re: Comments on dialog proposal

[Michael Rogers <banthafodder connectfree co uk>]

Christian Rose wrote:
> But there are lots of other examples where time is important. Consider me
> changing my mail forward address in the preference dialog of my mailer,
> then waiting with hitting "OK" and first searching the systems
> administrator in the office because I want to ask him if what I've entered
> in the dialog is correct. Maybe he's already out for lunch and I'll have
> to wait. When he comes back he says "no, that's a non-existing address".
> My mail was pointing to a non-existant address during that time, and my
> mail has been bouncing, even though I never touched "OK" to apply the
> settings.

But would you be any less confused if the button said 'Close' instead of
'OK'? You still wouldn't know that your changes had been applied
already, because 'Close' doesn't give you any clues about when your
changes will take effect.

The problem here isn't the 'OK' button. The problem is that a text box
in an instant-apply dialog is inappropriate if it's important to know
exactly when changes will be applied (as in your examples). Are the
changes applied as you type, or when you Tab to another widget? If the
former, your email address will be nonsensical while you're typing it.
If the latter, the change might not get applied until you close the
dialog, if you forget to move the keyboard focus to another part of the
dialog (which is easy to overlook).


Michael