I'm a bit conflicted about this. I would say that I definitely *prefer* native buttons. I think intuitive interfaces reuse components that people are already familiar with, allowing new users to learn how to use the application faster.
As a counter example to Chris Meller's referencing of Apple's me.com, Facebook, Yahoo!, etc. I will point out that one of the Firefox development team's primary goals for Firefox 3 was to move to using native OS widgets. I've been searching around for discussion of why they did this to hopefully find some real usability testing which actually demonstrates that this makes a difference. While I've found a lot of discussion of firefox usability testing with respect to tabbed browsing, forward and back buttons, and so on, I am yet to find a widget discussion. If I find an appropriate reference, I'll link it here. That said, I am not completely against trying some different things with respect to buttons. Chris' argument about color being a useful identification tool seems valid. And clearly we are already experimenting with new UI elements via the dropbutton, a non-native widget that we expect our users to learn how to use. However, aren't we already using color on the comment management page with the underlines beneath the buttons? Does changing the entire button look make them easier to use? Consequently, I am: +1 for keeping native widgets for now --Blake On Nov 24, 5:59 am, Matthias Bauer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hey everyone, > > instead of yet another revert-commit-revert fight, here's a call for a > vote on the matter of using the default OS widgets (buttons, dropdowns, > etc.) or whether to style them via CSS. > > The problems I have with styled widgets: > > - The styled buttons look bad in Chrome/Chromium, Safari 3, and likely > other WebKit browsers, due to the lack of antialiasing on rounded > borders. I haven't even checked in IE. > > - State transitions are far too subtle with the current styling. The > hover can barely be made out, for example. > > - The usability is worse than unstyled buttons, because people know > their OS widgets and know how they look like and what behavior to expect > from them. > > - Lastly, I don't think they fit in with the rest of the admin > (different border radius, different color, different gradient, etc.) > > The only pro argument I could see: > > - Make Habari look consistent across platforms. Doesn't resonate with me > because I don't think Habari should try to appear as a separate > platform. For me, Habari is an app. > > So, votes please, everyone. > > -Matt --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-dev -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
