Re: [Usability] ?extraneous text? in dialogs

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com> wrote:

> On Oct 18, 2006, at 4:08 PM, Mariano Suárez-Alvarez
> wrote:
> > ...
> > What's the current stance on things like
> > <http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=143592>
> and
> >
> <http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=143594>?
> > ...
> 
> Explaining difficult things in interfaces should be
> encouraged, because 
> these explanations are much more likely to be read
> than if they are in 
> a manual.
> 
> In general, the less frequently an interface is
> used, the more 
> appropriate it is to embed explanatory text. For
> example, if there were 
> instructions in one of the standard file dialogs,
> that would get pretty 
> tiring pretty quickly. But for a
> difficult-to-understand option in a 
> Preferences window, which is rarely used, it is
> quite okay.
> 
> Putting explanatory text in brackets -- as in bug
> 143592's examples -- 
> is awkward, and should be done sparingly. Usually it
> is better to add a 
> complete sentence, in <small> text, under the
> control (left-aligned 
> with the main label, if the control is a checkbox or
> radio button).

IIRC the HIG currently says there should be no
documentation-type text in dialogs (though the
definition of this is a bit tricky).
Perhaps it should be updated with something along the
lines of the above?


		
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