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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: powerful tooltips,
From:       cintyram <cintyram () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2003-11-14 14:00:53
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hi,
 my opinions are interleaved with the mail please read below ;
cheers
ram

--- solo turn <soloturn99@yahoo.com> wrote:
> currently there are discussions about:
> - reducing available buttons in toolbars
> 	strategy: combine functionality, just remove things
> - make buttons clearer
> 	strategy: add text, make buttons bigger, fewer buttons
> 	confuse less
> 
> these discussions are very promising, but imo a few things are not
> yet considered:
> 
> 1. display and easy set (keyboard, speech?) shortcuts, extend tooltip
> --------------
> a button on a toolbar has a tooltip. a menu entry could have a
> tooltip, which is basically a
> bubble/box opening when the mouse stays on an object. this tooltip
> should contain:
> - a descriptive text, or other background
>   information (the url behind it, ...)
> - the assigned shortcut
> - "edit shortcut" opens a kde or application specific
>   component for assigning/editing the shortcut
> - help
> 
> it wuold be great if there would be a possibility to go to the
> tooltip with the keyboard and also
> leave it again via keyboard (esc, timeout, ?)

A>]. in fact one of the most important aspects is to make sure that all
the features that can be used to affect the main object [ document
etc..] are made accessible in an intuitive way; This has been already
done through  the standard idiom of providing menus [ which help group
similar commands ] and groups of icons in tool bars; but icons are not
only for the visual connection; they are also for the one click
operation, and thus save time; 
unlike for menus, we cannot have two kinds of shortened and full tool
bars, it is inconsistent ui;

B>]. for that matter if tool bars also become a two click affair, they
might as well become part of menus, ie. simply add an icon to each menu
entry along with its text, that way, some place can be saved on the
tool bar;

C>]. From a useability perspective, there are different stages of use
of any application, tooltips and the like are useful only in the
initial stages, as we get used to an application we find ourselves
using tooltips less frequently, also most ppl find toolbars and menu
bars themselves become annoying, and one would like to maximise the
productive area, that is the main object, [ document etc.. ]
 which is why the full screen mode is important;
in this aspect ms tools are better, especially IE ;
 The only gripe with full screen mode is that it should not forbid the
task bar if there is activity on it; unfortunately this is how gnome,
kde and ms tools uis work ;

D>]. though using a full screen mode, one should be allowed to "float"
a tool bar or menu bar, this way they have a greater area of the screen
used for the main object, and less aread for less used objects, without
losing out on the benifits of multitasking;

> 
> 
> 2. display buttons, menu entries depending on users behaviour
> ----------
> microsoft uses this strategy to simplify menus. menus have to modes:
> "standard" and
> "extended/full". clicking on a menu opens the standard menu with a
> minimal set of entries, and an
> arrow icon. staying with the mouse on the arrow, or clicking the
> arrow opens the full menu.
> choosing a menu entry includes it in the standard display the next
> time. not choosing it for a
> long time removes it again from the standard display.
> 
> it would be great if kde could do this for menu entries, and toolbar
> buttons.
> 
> 
> 3. making gui control elements clearer (buttons, texts), not bigger
> -----------
> to make something clearer, it is not necessary or not always
> necessary to make it bigger (bigger
> icon, longer text). i think a more precise icon (simpler?), a more
> precise text, and a good
> tooltip are very helpful.
> 
> why? the most important thing on an application is the document area,
> the things around are just
> helping to issue commands for doing something in the document area,
> so people like big document
> areas. therefor screens get bigger and bigger and you can put more
> windows on it, and/or have
> bigger document areas.
> 

the key to clearer buttuns or any gui element for that matter is the
intuitive nature of its pictoral information, and the contrast and
simplicity of the image;

a bigger icon is not needed except for accessibility reasons;
If one considers a bigger icon to put more information on it, then the
information itself should be reviewed ; any way icon sizes rae standard
and a designer should not try to use non-standard icons in generic
applications.


hence the size of icons should be a matter of choice for the use ;



> fitts law should not be "misused" to fill a bigger screen with bigger
> buttons (or bigger gui
> control elements in general). microsoft did a good job, kde too did
> also up to now, gnome did a
> bad job in this respect. a microsoft application on a 800x640 screen
> looks like a gnome
> application on a 1280x1024 screen.
> 
> also a valid approach seems to ba a three mode way: display icon,
> display text, display both.
> 
> 
> 4. do not distinguish between menu bar, and tool bar
> ---------
> a menu contains text, if you click on that text, a menu opens. a
> toolbar can contain icons with a
> small arrow, clicking on that opens a menu of icons. both have
> tooltips, both have shortcuts. 
> if you offer display modes "text/icon/both" there is no point in
> makeing that difference. the menu
> bar is just a very important toolbar (i.e. default toolbar), in text
> mode. this would also make it
> easy possible to place the menu bar, and e.g. the navigation bar side
> by side, and saving one line
> on the screen (doing something useful with the wide gray space on the
> menu's right side).
> 


Couldnt agree more!! 

> 
> do you think this would help making kde clearer and easier to use?
> 


cheers
ram


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