Re: [Usability] UI design question



Hi Matthew + Jacob -

Thanks for the advice, some good stuff in here.

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 7:59 PM, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com> wrote:

My first thought is: That list of actions doesn't seem to include
anything that requires it to be a dialog. Could it be an ordinary window
instead?

I guess I just didn't get the difference between the two.   I thought a dialog was just a window with a pre-defined layout.  I'm guessing by your reactions there is a bit more? 
 

Instead, try thinking object -> verb: present the list of themes first,
with the actions afterwards. Like this:

This is much calmer, even while it lets you see the complete list of
themes at a glance (which the radio-button-based design wouldn't).

To be honest, it didn't strike me right away, but this could be a pretty good way of looking at it. I'll fiddle with it a bit and see what looks good.  Any other options for laying it out?  The buttons at the bottom seem a bit.. eh, i don't know how to describe it.  Would it lose anything if they were on the right, arranged vertically? 


Here's what would happen to the previous options:
*   "Create a new theme" ->  "New...", then type its name into the
   newly-created table row.
*   "Create a new theme based on an existing theme" ->  select theme,
   then click "Duplicate..." and type the name into the newly-created
   table row.
*   "Open an existing theme" ->  select theme, then click "Open".
*   "Edit current theme" -> open window, then click "Edit" (the current
   theme being selected by default).
*   "Open last edited theme" ->  select theme, then click "Edit...".

I think the "edit" and "open" actions are really the same thing here, so they can be combined into a single button.

Thinking about the (future) general users of this application, the "new from scratch" option is going to be not used very often.  I think the majority of themers start off by copying something (the duplicate) and then tweaking it until it is unrecognizable, so I think the "create based on an existing" or "edit existing" are the two most important items on this menu.  With the "new theme" being so prevalent, I think people will miss the functionality of "duplicate" on first glance, until they try it a few times and see what happens.

I hope I'm being clear above.  With this info in mind, does it change anything about what you said?

Either way, thanks for this information, it's exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for.  Sorry if I am not so "that's perfect!" out the gate, I'm trying to learn this stuff a bit, not just follow blind advice :)

Thanks again,
dave



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