[Usability] Re: Instant apply (and an HIG change)

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 23Jan2002 08:39PM (-0500), Bradford Hovinen wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-01-23 at 18:39, Seth Nickell wrote:
> > It would be great if you can detail the inherent problems you see with
> > instant-apply so we can consider them.
> 
> Ok, here are the problems I see off the top of my head:
> 
> 1) Instant apply works very poorly when the apply operation is
> especially expensive, such as with metatheme.
> 2) Certain controls on the mouse capplet don't work too well with
> instant apply, such as the left-handed check box and the acceleration
> feature (e.g. consider what happens if a user accidentally drags the
> acceleration bar all the way to the right).
> 3) Instant apply can be disasterous with system tools, such as the
> Ximian Setup Tools.
> 4) To be effective, it should be applied consistently to all capplets.
> If some capplets are of the instant apply variety and others are not, I
> forsee much confusion on the part of the user.
> 
> This comes from my experience having tried to implement it a bit over a
> year ago. 


These are all valid concerns in some cases. For the mouse properties,
I think it's not too bad as long as the mouse is still usable
regardless of the setting, and that's somethig you want anyway.

I think the one concern among these that's not necessarily as serious
as you might think is mixing a few non-instant-apply controls among a
generally instant-apply system. The important thing is to have a
clearly labeled "Save Changes" or "Apply Now" button in an appropriate
place, and possibly some explanatory text in the dialog; and also to
have the usual unsaved changes confirmation dialog deal if the user
tries to close with unsaved settings.

> I know there are more problems, but they do not surface in my
> mind right now.

It would be great to hearr them if you remember.