Re: [Usability]Re: An alternative proposal for instant-apply vs. non-instant-apply

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl>]

Hello Colin,

colin z robertson wrote:

> hmm. Yes, this is a possibility. It works for palettes of tools, but
> if instant-apply becomes popular then I don't think we'll really want
> everyday controls to be smaller.
I've been thinking about this tonight and I came up with "audiovisual 
feedback". Already GTK widgets can "light up" when the mouse pointer is 
over them. My idea is to distinguish instant-apply from delayed-apply by 
highlighting the entire widget that was activated, and let the selection 
gradually fade away. Simultaneously an "audio event" can be triggered. I 
imagine a friendly high-pitched 'tinggg' sound that fades away together 
with the highlighting. The entire feedback could last for, say, 0,5 
second. The color of the highlighting could perhaps vary with the 
selected theme but I was thinking of something light-green or 
light-yellow. (See also Paul Durans' Color Reactiveness post.) The 
highlighting could take the form of a thin box or circle drawn around 
the widget, or perhaps the text/button/checkbox/whatever itself could 
change color. The audio event also adds a nice accessability touch to 
this feature. :-)

For delayed-apply dialogs, none of this would happen until the 'Apply' 
button is pressed. Then you could give the audiovisual feedback for the 
Apply button or even the entire dialog!

Please tell me what you think,

--
Reinout