Re: [Usability] close icon is misleading

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Calum Benson wrote:

> Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 15:54:42 +0100
> From: Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>
> To: Rodney Dawes <dobey free fr>
> Cc: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] close icon is misleading
>
> On Wed, 2003-09-10 at 15:27, Rodney Dawes wrote:
>
> > How about "OK" or something similar? "Finished" maybe?
>
> Hmm, I don't think we could use "OK"; the way things are right now, we
> effectively use "OK" to indicate that a dialog is not instant apply, and
> "Close" to indicate that it is.  Something like "Finished" or "Done" is

I get the feeling I have seen 'Done' used before.

I find it particularly odd when a dialog says Cancel when I have already
made irreversable actions (a find and replace dialog is first time I
recally seeing this), however I thought Close was quite distinct from
Cancel.

> a possibility I guess, although it could feel slightly odd if you hadn't
> actually made any changes before dismissing the window.

> > Yes, but Windows nor MacOS have icons on the "Close" buttons.

I really loathe the suggestion of disabling the window decorations.  I
dont see how it makes it significantly less confusing for anyone and it
does annoy me.  I already get agrravated enough by windows that are
non-modal but dont a minimize icon or windows that even though they can
resize and reflow correctly but dont have a maximise icon.

I really like being able to consistanly hit Esc and have the dialog
dissappear and take the least destructive action possible, no matter what
the button label may say, be it Close, Cancel, or even OK.  I couldn't say
for sure about Gnome (because disabled windows decorations are not too
frequent) but when in Microsoft Windwos the Close Window decoration X is
disabled so too is the Esc keybinding.

> > I know none of my machines have Floppy Disk drives anymore. My new
> > laptop doesn't even have a CD-ROM drive.

> Yep, changed times indeed.  I'd be more than happy to see us
> experimenting with new icons for things like "Save" and the desktop
> device icons (how many users know what the inside of a hard disk looks
> like for goodness sake?), any takers? :)

The disk icon was a dubious metaphor to begin with in.  A developer
recently told me of his elderly mother he had setup with Gnome and she
asked what the "Computer Icon" was for, the Disk look as much like a
computer as anything else should could figure.

> Longer term of course, you're right, it would be nice to be able to do
> away with the notion of explicitly "saving" things at all... PDAs have
> managed to do it quite happily for years.

Eventually, but for larger complex applications I expect this will be a
very long time before.  If you are going to have save done automatically
it absolutely must work reliably, there are plenty of known issues and
tradeoffs (ask me later) but few existing implementations more complex
than a sticky notes program.

Even then we would still need some sort of icon for "Save As" & "Export".

Removing the X from the button as dobey suggested seemslike the best
answer but I would not like icons removed entirely from buttons, they were
a life saver last time i screwed up my copy of Pango and had no text in
any of my GTK2 applications, and illiterate people use computers too.

> Cheeri,
> Calum.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/