Wow. this is great. Thanks for writing this up Mimi. This is quite
long and may be difficult for ppl to digest so I may send this back
in piecemeal. This is Part I. Thanks! -Priscilla
My response in line:
On Apr 25, 2007, at 6:22 AM, Mimi Yin wrote:
Hi Priss,
http://wiki.osafoundation.org/pub/Journal/
CosmoPreviewStyleguideRevisited/Cosmo_Preview_Styleguide_Stacked.png
Ok, I updated the image so it links from the 0.7 spec:
http://wiki.osafoundation.org/Projects/
CosmoZeroDotSevenSpec#CurrentMockUp
I'd like to encourage you update the latest revision on the spec so
every one knows there's only one place they will need to go to see
the latest and greatest. I've been displaying it in reverse chronicle
order and adding dates before the mock up so everyone would know when
the mock up was created. Hopefully to lessen the confusion.
I've started on another pass of the chrome and had a few questions:
1. Making the use of grey text consistent:
+ Field labels
+ Hint text
Ok, looks good. I'm not sure if you had a specific question here.
2. Toned down the pulldown menus to be just 'Text + Arrows' (like
Apple iCal). I was wondering if the boxed pulldowns would look
strange in the Detail View next to the other platform specific
field elements, like checkboxes and radio buttons.
Agreed. Speaking of iCal, I was thinking we should review tomorrow
about unfocused input form fields to have a 1 px border and put focus
on live input fields which would have an indent. As I start at this
more, the problem lies that there is just a lot of information in the
detail view and you don't know where you are when filling out the
form fields.
In addition, I understand the arguments for hiding information in a
two item drop down list, but if the AM/PM radio buttons are taking
too much space, an argument could be made about saving space in the
detail view will also help visibility. Besides it is common on a lot
of (travel) web sites to see AM/PM in a drop down list. I'll add this
item to tomorrow's meeting agenda.
This freed up a lot of space in the DV and allowed me to move the
fields around so that the fields can be more conventionally laid out.
So I'm not sure, but I have a feeling when I meant we may be able to
customize the drop down list, it would just mean there is a 1 pixel
outline of a flat form field box and the usual arrow pointing
downwards. I mean this may be something we want to aim to do at some
point, but it might not be possible by preview for the following
reasons:
1. My understanding is that the custom drop down list was not a high
priority vs. all the other items Matthew has on his list. He's
reusing some code which he had wrote up from before and to create a
drop down based on your mock up may mean more tweaking and time in
the schedule which is beyond preview. Perhaps the first stage for
preview is to just have a flat drop down list and then move for
something more subtle.
2. I'm not sure if having the double arrows is a convention on the
web besides Apple applications. Does anyone have a screen shot of mac
mail on the web? Let me look into that.
3. My last concern is make sure users are able to tab into the drop
down list. Currently if I'm proposing to have a live input fields to
have indents, I wonder if it will look odd when tabbing throughout
the web app from something that doesn't look editable to an indented
editable field. I realize iCal/Address book on the mac does this,
however they are only focused in the detail view and not tabbing
throughout the web app. ie. the go to date field, to the quick item
entry box, to the subscription drop down list, to the detail view.
Does that make sense?
One last note on focus, maybe we can propose some thing where there
is a focus area in the three pane. For example when you are looking
at the dashboard, the left nav and the detail view is slightly grayed
out—a very subtle grey so it's not looking like everything is
disabled. We can experiment on this, but the point is to give focus
on the area you're working in. If the user clicks off to one of the
other panes, then there is a transition in the focus.
3. Stacked the From and To columns into a single Who column. Added
dividers to divide up the rows.
I was going to ask about that. Did you ever think about candy stripes
on the dashboard for the desktop? I realize they don't have this in
some e-mail applications, but I was just curious on your past
experience. The dividers are a good idea, but are very faint to the
extent that I could barely see it on my laptop. We'll experiment on
this some more.
+ What will our heuristics be for when to display 1 versus 2 rows
per item?
+ Does it always hinge on the Who column?
+ If there are no Who attributes to display, do we always display 1
row, even if the Title could potentially wrap onto 2 rows?
I guess I was originally thinking it would display two rows. Hmmm…
maybe we need to see if there would be too much space if it's always
two rows. Probably need to check with Matthew if it would be possible
to alternate depending on the content.
One more thing I noticed, Matthew can confirm this, but I don't think
he'll be able to implement ellipses
4. Added the mini-cal sidebar back in.
+ Do we need a [Go] button next to the 'Go to' widget?
Probably until we decide not to show the 'go to date' on the web UI
and make it as part of a keyboard short cut (there are no definite
plans on this, but just something that is consistent in other
calendaring app including the desktop). We may need to also add a '+'
or some type of 'add' button at the end of quick item entry. I know
we had this conversation before about it being similar to the 'go'
button in a address bar in the browser. It seems for now, since there
isn't a lot of keyboard support on the web UI, there may be a need to
have that visual cue for users—even if it muddles the visual
cleanliness.
+ Will selecting a week in the mini-cal do anything when the user
is in the Dashboard view?
This was a question I had originally which I forgot to jot down in
the open issues. In addition, would entering a date on the 'go to
date' automatically jump back to calendar view? Or would we be able
to add some visual cue in the mini cal? Best separate this as a
question & proposal on the design list.
5. Added a very subtle light grey background to the DV to set it
off from the rest of the UI.
Oh, I don't see the subtle grey in the detail view, but this is
probably what I was mentioning above.
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