Re: [Usability] Gnome usability question regarding preference dialog

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Wed, 2009-01-28 at 10:28 +0000, Steve Fosdick wrote:
> I read the section you refer to above and it does not appear to answer
> the original question.  It instructs the application designer to use
> "instant apply" where possible but doesn't discuss why and doesn't
> mention anything about having "undo" or "reset" to defaults" for instant
> apply.
> 
> Interestingly in the case of non-instant apply dialogs it says that the
> cancel button should leave everything as it was before the user started
> tinkering.
> 
> I seem to remember there being some discussion previously, perhaps it
> was here, about undo history for config changes.

There has certainly been discussion about it before, and it's proven
inconclusive. Hence the reason the HIG doesn't currently recommend any
particular solution, unfortunately.

See <http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94716> and
<http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95110> for most of the
background.

Cheeri,
Calum.

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

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems