[Usability] Re: Decision: instant apply window buttons

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

Seth Nickell wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 2002-01-20 at 19:18, iain wrote:
> >
> > > DECISION: Instant apply windows should not have a dismissal button. They
> > > may optionally have a Help button in the lower left corner of the
> > > dialog.
> >
> > Decide all you want...
> > I ain't following it
> > For the reason I stated was the definitive reason during the discussion.
> 
> I assume you are referring to the accessibility problem.
> 
> From my comment on window managers w/o close buttons:
> "Furthermore, we need a standard keystroke for dismissing windows anyway,
> which should work on instant apply windows too."

But this does not solve the problem for accessibility users fully.  In
an ideal world the window borders would be navigable/explorable but we
don't have that ability for 2.0.  And as has been reported by several
blind users already, a 'normal' mode of operation is to
investigate/navigate the UI to find "close" for a given UI window or
dialog.  Remember that the visual cues that sighted users have about the
dialog are not present, so it may be more confusing not to find an
explicit close/quit.  

The expectation for a given dialog is that either (1) a close/done
button is present; (2) an 'exit' menu item is present (usually on the
"File" menu), or (3) the dialog is of the sort which might be left
onscreen through the lifetime of the application, such as a "style
palette" or the like.  The instant-apply dialogs we've been discussing
don't meet any of those three criteria.

And yes, it will be a pain/usability issue for accessibility users, more
so for some than for others.  I expect that for users of dynamic
onscreen keyboards it will be a particularly nasty pain since it is
likely to extend the number of operations required to close a window
('close window' is not likely to be kept on the toplevel of a standard
dynamic keyboard).  

-Bill

> -Seth
> 
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