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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: A new paradigm
From:       Dave Leigh <dave.leigh () cratchit ! org>
Date:       2001-07-16 14:41:50
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On Monday 16 July 2001 10:01, Stefan Werner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > > Such alerts should be avoided at all - if you don't leave the user any
> > > choice, why ask them? You don't gain any information by that. Raskin
> > > pointed out a nice idea of "transparent dialogs" that I'd love to see
> > > implemented.
> >
> > I'm not familiar with the suggestion, Stephan; could you summarize?
>
> In short, he suggests replacing all the dialogs with only one button with
> transparent dialogs, that have a see-through appearance and disappear as
> soon as you click anything on the screen. Thus they don't really interrupt
> you in your work. However, I see two problems here: First, X doesn't give
> us transparency yet (grrr). Second, I suppose you might overlook some
> messages because they appeared 1/10 secont before you click something else,
> and then they disappear before you had a chance to read them. One could fix
> that with timeouts, so you say that such a  message will remain on the
> screen for at least 2 seconds. Since it's transparent (and has a
> click-through behaviour), it doesn't hurt your work that much. Of course,
> they'd be non-modal dialogs. I don't want to propose this as the final
> solution (tm), but I think this is an idea that is worth evaluating since
> it would decrease the number of (evil) modal dialogs.

I think I like the common service idea better. Several reasons:

1. Not all users may be working on systems that would support transparency. 
That may be less of an issue these days, but certainly not all users CHOOSE 
to work at large color depths. 

2. Too many times I've seen a dialog flash up and be gone because the dialog 
popped up when I was typing and hit a space, dismissing the dialog (I'm a 
fast touch typist.  Sometimes I'm looking at copy, not at the screen).  I'd 
like something that I can go back to during the session and view the message 
again.  This also solves the problem of people who call or email for support 
and say, "I can't remember exactly what the message said, but it was 
something like..."

3. I've seen "transparent" dialogs.  They're about as unobtrusive as an 
embroidered bee bonnet over your head. In other words, it takes a bit of 
effort to "see past" them.  And the more transparent they are, the less 
effective they are for communication.  I don't think the goal should be to 
display a message that can be ignored (why bother?) or to split your 
attention. Rather, it should be  to hold messages that aren't urgent enough 
to interrupt you. Personally, I'd rather see a blinking icon in a tray than 
have popup transparency.  (Obviously, if your immediate attention IS 
required, then a dialog is indicated. It would be nice to be able to 
impliment this through the same component (using severity levels), so 
the user can go back and review the messages afterward).

4. There are the implementation issues you mention.  Surely it's easier to 
chuck the message over to a component that maintains a list. KISS.

Dave

-- 
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
		-- La Rochefoucauld

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