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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Labels for icons in the window decoration
From:       optimus prime <optimus () philwebinc ! com>
Date:       2002-11-10 7:10:27
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On Sunday 10 November 2002 7:56 am, wvl wrote:

> Yup, no application really requires a 'Quit' command. I can't think of any
> reason why it shouldn't be removed in favor of just using the 'X'.

Do not remove "Quit", use "Close" instead, and still have that X in the window 
decoration. Newbies initially rely on the File Menu to do things for them. 
They find out later how to use the buttons on the window decorations much 
later. If we remove the "Close" in the File Menu, it should be argued that we 
need to include the word Close beside the icon in the window decoration. See 
attachment below.

Note that the size of the label can be made smaller and more discreet so that 
it doesn't intrude much with the text of the title bar. The color can also be 
altered so that it doesn't look more prominent than the color of the title 
bar's text. It will be good to balance the task of making the icons' text 
discreet without impairing readability.

Some of you may agree to remove "Close" in the File menu and merge the label 
in the window decoration. What do you think? IMO, this sounds good to me. 
There will be only one location with which to manage windows and STILL be 
intelligible and recognizable for newbies by placing the label beside the 
icon. Clearly, the "Close" function belongs to the window decoration space. I 
think it works neat for both MDI and SDI apps.

The usability principle implied here is the combination of icons and text to 
enhance usability. MacOSX principle of using red, yellow, green traffic 
lights colored buttons WITHOUT text or any recognizable icon is indeed a 
usability setback.

From a usability point of view, labels + icons in the window decoration will 
enhance usability.

From an aesthetic point of view, it sure looks somewhat strange at first. It 
will somehow clutter the window decoraton with textual noise and reduce space 
for documents with long titles. For me, these are minor nuisances. Usability 
comes first. Plus, there's still a lot of unused space in the title bar even 
with labels for these icons.

For power users, an option to turn off the icons' labels will be neat. Or 
configure it like the icons in the toolbar (text aside icons, icons only, 
text only text under icons)


Regards,

Michael




["window-dec.png" (image/png)]
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