Re: [Usability] Panel input fields

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

Brian Skahan wrote:

> shows the dictionary lookup applet and the contact lookup applet, should
> there be a HIG guideline for size, spacing, button orentation, etc.?  Or
> is there allready one and I just missed it?

No, there's currently nothing like that specific to applets.  I think 
we'd all very much like to expand the amount of applet design guidance 
in the HIG generally for the next release, though.

As it happens, input fields are particularly hard to make into a good 
applet... if you make them expand to fit the height of a 
bigger-than-default panel then they look ugly, but if you don't, well, 
they still look ugly :)  (And can potentially break the Fitts-ness of 
the panel).

Suggestions as to what the best thing to do might be in this situation 
are welcome... as long as the panel only allows one "row" of applets 
regardless of its height, perhaps one option might be to recommend 
putting such an applet's buttons underneath its text field whenever the 
panel gets big enough, but that could end up looking a bit clunky too.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems