Re: [Usability] Options, Check, Toggle, Exclusive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On May 17, 2007, at 4:36 AM, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 09:52:15AM -0500, Shaun McCance wrote:
> ...
> > I'm using Clearlooks, the default theme in upstream Gnome.  When
> > I hover over the label of a radio button or check box, the entire
> > clickable area prelights.  As you mouse your way towards the box,
> > you'll see the prelight and, hopefully, realize you can click.
>
> Prelighting offers visual indication on mouse-over, but prior to
> that there is no visual indication.
> ...

Exactly. To put it another way: mouseover effects are feedback you 
don't get until just after you need it.

One thing that makes Mac OS X elegant and relaxing to use, compared 
with Windows, Gnome, or KDE, is that its controls (apart from the Dock 
gimmick) almost never have mouseover effects. Controls either have 
outlines, or they don't. The "✕ - +" symbols that appear when hovering 
over OS X's title bar buttons are the mistake that proves the rule: 
they'd work much better if they were visible all the time.

So if anything is done to make checkbox, radiobutton, and disclosure 
triangle labels more obviously clickable, I think it should be 
something that is always visible.

Cheers
--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/