From kde-usability Wed Nov 01 15:33:27 2006 From: Maciej Pilichowski Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:33:27 +0000 To: kde-usability Subject: Some thoughts about "What's This Help redesing for KDE4" document Message-Id: <200611011633.27763.macias () mat ! uni ! torun ! pl> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-usability&m=116239526712524 * I really hope I post this mail to appropriate group ;-) * http://www.userbrain.de/whatsthis/ideas_whatsthis_january06_v1.3.pdf Hello, Btw. it is a good idea to include number for almost everything, this way it is easier to comment. Bullets look nice but it is harder to refer to them. 2.1.a) I am not sure about the titlebar placement. All other widgets ok -- they are all about geometry, look and placement. WT does not fit there. 2.2.1) Is WT indicator really helpful? Please, take a breath -- indicator alone, not clickable indicator, but just static info "WT is available". In my opinion -- no (if you don't have problem, you do not need help, right, if you do, you need help, no information "help is available, period."). Only clickable indicator. See below. 2.2.1.a) In my opinion no-go. Consider Konqueror settings. I am investigating some widget in left, bottom corner and I get some blicking icon in the right, top. Bad design -- it is a distraction for the user, not help. 2.2.1.b) My favourite (really nice looking). 2.2.1.b & c) Maybe there are major changes in tooltips in KDE4 but they seem useless -- once you move mouse the tooltip will disappear. So those clickable indicators are not physically available. If the tooltip would not go away, and the indicator is clickable I liked this idea. Or maybe something between -- for (c). WT icon will always overlap a bit with the widget so it is possible to move mouse, WT icon would not go away, and user could click it. 2.2.2. Too complex. WT should be quick and easy way to get just brief help about function/widget, not some panel with settings, options, features, etc. Put yourself in position of the beginner. WT should help, not distract. The moment you put WT floating dialog with all those options you need another help for WT dialog. KISS. 2.2.3 and 2.2.5 I see some misdirection here. WT should really mean what it says -- what's _this_, but not "what all those buttons mean". I was never curious about all the stuff I saw and as a guide/help I never saw somebody would like this either. Always it was question about _this_. So, let's continue... 2.2.3 mockup screen looks great, but it is not very well integrated with menus. It does not solve problem with tighly packed widgets. Look at 2.2.5 screen and just imagine showing the menu now. Overkill. Compare it to Konqueror access keys -- it has only number but it is not such rare to see overlapping tooltips and completely unvisible main page. My suggestion -- keep only number (access keys; default: turned off) without "more" with the same style but -- after user switch to WT mode (for example) fade out a bit dialog and menus, when user move mouse over WT-able widget it become full color (as before) or maybe plus extra border in some contrast color (I hope you have a picture of it already; if not -- I could make a fake screenshot). And... that's it. It will work ok for mouse and keyboard. No distraction, no need of extra information, toolbox, etc. Another advantage -- it would change the appearence in minimal way. If configured so (for example without access keys tooltips -- great omission for beginners) it would almost not change it at all. However it has drawback (I think of one for now) -- it is not very well suited for vision impaired people (animated frame instead of colored would be some kind of solution, you know, moving dots). Hmm, another solution -- make it bigger (the widget) something like with taskbar in Mac OS X. As far as I know and I can tell from my experience teaching other people -- the help is less needed than simplicity. Once the dialog is well designed, it is simple, actions are obvious no one needs help really. But if this a case, help should not bring more problems, user asking for help is probably already confused enough. my 2 cents, hope I helped a bit have a nice day, bye _______________________________________________ kde-usability mailing list kde-usability@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability