Re: [Usability]prefs dialog recommendation

[Pat Costello <Patrick Costello sun com>]

Right, well, I'm a doc guy but in truth I do not really feel that the long 
dialog explanations issue is a genuine documentation issue. 
> 
> ok... the doc guys don't like it. The question is: why?
> And what do you (and the other hig guys) think about this idea?
> 
> I think it could be useful for two reasons:
> 
> 1. You have a quick explanation of what you can set in the prefs dialog 
> without having to run the help browser
> 2. ATM, it is probably the unique help text that is likely to be translated.
> 
> Ciao,
> Paolo

I believe that explanatory texts in dialogs and the UI in general are Not a Good 
Thing. Reasons: 

- Translation issues: English-language original text can expand up to 30% in 
some of the different GNOME languages. Even long labels have caused problems for 
L10N in the GNOME past. Long dialog explanations cause space constraint 
problems. The lengthy explanation of the original text could well end up being 
truncated to meaninglessness in translation by the need to fit the script into 
the available space. 

- Updating issues: Functionality and features change all the time in GNOME. A 
long dialog text would inevitably be quickly out-of-date. No-one experiences the 
rate of change more directly than the docs people. If developers have to start 
going through the same checking and updating cycles as the docsteams, then your 
effectiveness as developers will be affected. Adversely. 

- Usability issues: The very first time someone sees the long explanation, then 
there is some validity for the text. Every time afterwards, and for everyone 
else who does not need the text, the long explanation is a distraction. 
Distractions are a usability nuisance. The UI is about interaction. Providing 
in-situ explanations in the UI dilutes the interactive nature. 

- Accessibility issues: the explanatory text will also need to be included as an 
ALT text for accessibility use, which will also need to be maintained and 
possibly translated. 

- Consistency issues: if we start to use long explanations in dialogs, then 
there is a risk of statements in different dialogs conflicting with each other. 

There are various sub-streams of discussion that you could pursue from each of 
the above topic areas, but I don't have the energy right now to go subterranean. 
The suggestion for dialog explanations looks like an attempt to fill the void 
created by the absence of context-sensitive Help. Rather than embellishing GNOME 
dialogs with potentially difficult explanations, a better course would be to 
investigate how we can better provide Help to users. In other words, quo vadis 
context-sensitive Help? 

Pat