Howdy Mr. Rossi -
>>I don't know what alternate reality you people are living in but it's
>>*STANDARD BEHAVIOR* for the first item in a dialog to get the keyboard
>>focus and show a selection when the dialog opens on *ALL PLATFORMS*.
>
>Personally, I'm all for "alternate" reality -- it pushes the boundaries
>of "standard" reality in new directions. Take a look at the latest MP3
>players and skins you'll see some of the more interesting and exciting
>directions happening in interface. But be warned -- most of them are not
>very... (dare I say the "S" word?)... STANDARD.
>
>Granted, whether or not a cursor appears when making a window active is
>fairly mundane, but the point is, we continue to rehash the same
>interface elements that were conceived of decades ago. Experimentation
>just might lead to something new and interesting (or aternatively,
>something Microsoft-like).
>
>OK, enough of this alternate reality. Back to curved text fields,
>circular popup menus and translucent windows...
I know you've read the HIG backwards and forwards and make these
statements with a solid understanding of the risks involved.
But for the benefit of less experienced readers here who might be tempted
to take your post as an excuse to make completely unusable software, this
is from the Mac HIG discussion of fundamental design principles:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consistency
Consistency in the interface allows people to transfer their knowledge
and skills from one application to any other. Use the standard elements
of the Macintosh interface to ensure consistency within your application
and to benefit from consistency across applications.
Effective applications are consistent in a number of different ways.
Consistency in the visual interface helps people learn and then easily
recognize the graphic language of the interface--for example, once users
know what a checkbox looks like, they don't have to learn anl for making
choices. Consistency in the behavior of the interface means that people
have to learn how to do things such as clicking and pointing only once;
then they can explore new applications or new types of features using
skills that they already have. In general, consistency benefits the
typical user, who usually divides working time among several
applications, and it benefits software developers because their users can
build on prior experiences with elements in other applications when
learning how to use a new application.
The following are some questions you can ask yourself when thinking about
consistency in your product.
Is your product consistent
* within itself?
* with earlier versions of your product?
* with Macintosh interface standards?
* in its use of metaphors?
* with people's expectations?
Note that the most difficult kind of consistency to achieve is matching
people's expectations. Because you often face a wide audience and a range
of expertise, it's difficult to meet the expectations of everyone. You
can address this problem by carefully weighing the consistency issues in
the context of your target audience and their needs.
<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-20.html#
HEADING20-0>
-----------------------------------------------------------
I was going to include Microsoft's nearly-verbatim copy of this text in
their own HIG, but of course they use a non-standard implementation of
Java which only works on Windows. :(
- Richard Gaskin
Fourth World
Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web
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