On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Gijs de Rooy wrote: > (Why) do we need two buttons to close a dialog? I recently removed the ones > that say "Close" on most > dialogs, replacing them with small buttons in the top right corner. There > are quite some dialogs that don't > have a "normal" close button (like Route manager, Aircraft help, Common > keys, Property Browser). I > personally very much prefer those.
You are an expert user, who already knows that the unlabeled box in the top right corner is a button, and what it does. Don't over-estimate the computing knowledge of a new user - they have none of that knowledge, and simply won't know how to dismiss the dialog. Remember - the FG Plib-based FG UI is going to be quite alien to them, as it's not got the same look and feel to the window systems they might be used to. They aren't going to guess that the object in to the top right corner is a button that acts like the X button in the top right of their Windows box, assuming that they even use that. Putting this another way, I'm not aware of any other GUI targetted at non-expert users (i.e. people specifically trained to use that software) that does not provide a clearly labeled button (OK/Cancel/Close) to dismiss every single dialog box within the UI. Frankly, if I'd been aware that you'd removed all the Close buttons, I'd have complained very loudly. I consider that to be a serious usability regression. The reason I've left the top-right button in place is partly for consistency with some of the expert and long-lifed dialogs, and partly so that the top of the dialog box looks like a title bar, with the title of the dialog, the small close button, and a horizontal line. > The "Close" buttons just take up space > and block my view on the > instruments and environment even more... The dialogs I have added it to are ones which a user will use and then dismiss. I have not added it to dialogs such as the MP Pilot List and Stopwatch, nor do I intend to add it to expert dialogs such as the Property Browser. What other dialogs do you leave open for prolonged periods while flying? IMO, much worse is cluttering up a new users display with dialogs that they cannot dismiss! :) > We should teach our users to use the small button in topright corner, else > they will have a problem in those > dialogs that only have such small button. Besides that, less buttons make > things look easier, something that > FlightGear lacks accordint to a lot of users. How would you "teach" our new users? They don't read our documentation. We cannot "teach" our users to use a small unlabeled button in the top right corner. There simply has to be a clearly labeled button to close the dialog, which is what I'm attempting to ensure it present on all dialogs. On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 9:07 PM, Gary Neely wrote: > I'd like to back Gijs up here. I've worked in usability studies, and > these things make a difference in the user's experience. Minimizing > clicking and placing buttons in consistent locations makes for a > considerably more pleasant experience. I've also worked on usability studies. One consistent result from them is not to over-estimate the competance of the average user. The change I've made has improved consistency and usability by ensuring that there are clearly labeled buttons to dismiss the dialog on (almost) all the dialogs. I think I've covered all the XML dialogs. In my next pass, I'll go through and modify the C- and Nasal generated ones, with the exception of the dialogs that are clearly intended to remain active for a long time (pilot list, stopwatch), and dialogs targeted specifically at expert users, like the Property Browser. -Stuart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn how Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) One Node allows customers to consolidate database storage, standardize their database environment, and, should the need arise, upgrade to a full multi-node Oracle RAC database without downtime or disruption http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnl _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
