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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: UI feedback from a Linux newbie
From:       Rik Hemsley <rik () kde ! org>
Date:       2000-04-17 23:18:23
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#if Tom Hoferek
> > Nice. I like them.
> 
> Yes, nice mockups but I don't agree with the use of ticks in radio
> buttons. Suddenly two very different controls are starting to look a
> little too similar. Seen side by side, a user would likely know whats
> going on, but see a radio button in this style for the first time and I'm
> sure some thought would be required to determine what the control is.
> Maybe its not a really big deal, but I can't see the benefits of changing
> to the tick outweighing the benefits of sticking with the dot. This could
> be dangerously messing with people's expectations.

Hmm. Well I was thinking of doing things right _now_, fixing what
was done badly in the past.

When you see a bunch of radio buttons, they are all circular and one
is checked. Checkboxes are square. I can see that using a dot is
now standard, but I can't see that it's necessarily a good idea to
keep it. The problem comes when you change things like colour schemes.
If you only have two radio buttons, the user cannot see which one
is checked if they do not know which colour means what.

The B2 style addresses this issue by making the dot look 3D, which
helps a bit.

> > What about three-state checkboxes? What should the third state look
> > like?
> 
> I'm assuming the third state is necessary to indicate a mixed value where
> the checkbox applies to a number of 'things', some of which are on and
> some of which are off. In this case I think it makes sense to use a shaded
> tick indicating that both on and off values are represented. Is this the
> third state you are thinking of?

IMO tristate checkboxes are evil. A checkbox should be on or off.
If you want more values, use a combo. Abusing the user's idea of
what a control does is plain bad behaviour. It's a bit like the
way that kcontrol's tree view works differently to all others. The
user will not thank you for it.

Rik

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