On 16 Jul 2008, at 17:14, Michael Drake wrote:
Here are my own comments on Mike's stuff. They're mostly related to
user
interface intuitiveness, aesthetics and consistency. I'm quite
fastidious
about these things for RISC OS apps, but I am far less familiar
with GTK,
so some of my suggestions might not be right.
I've got some experience with the GNOME HIG, which is a pretty good
document, and a sensible thing for GTK+ apps to follow. Generally
what you've suggested is fine. I'm afraid my blindness in this case
is that I haven't had time to look at this code, other than your
screenshot, so I'll keep comments minimal:
+ When the download has unknown total size, the progress bar makes
it look
like the download is complete. I suggest having a moving short
bar, when
the download has unknown total size.
Yes [1]. It's a standard GTK+ feature [2].
+ All the active downloads currently include the word "completed",
which
looks strange. I'd change it to "Fetched X.XX XB of X.XX XB" or just
"X.XX XB of X.XX XB".
Yes. The use of percentages in the screenshot is wrong here: see [1]
again. If we have meaningful units (we do: bytes), use them.
+ There is an odd border where the buttons are at the bottom of the
window, which looks wrong. Should it go to the window's edge?
Need they
be there at all? See http://www.smoothartist.com/netsurf/
gtkborders.png
That looks like a pretty odd construct---it shouldn't be a toolbar,
because it's not providing quick-access to menu items [3]. It should
probably be a GtkHButtonBox, which will also be a little taller.
Because the user is likely to be moving the mouse vertically between
list items and the buttons in order to use them, it's their vertical
dimension which most affects the ease with which they can be acquired
[4].
Phil
1. <http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/controls-progress-
bars.html.en#indeterminate-progress>
2. <http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk/stable/GtkProgressBar.html#gtk-
progress-bar-pulse>
3. <http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/toolbars-
appearance.html.en>
4. Fitts' Law. Try <http://www.asktog.com/columns/
022DesignedToGiveFitts.html>
--
| Philip Boulain PhD student | _`._ | "After all, dumbing down |
| IAM, ECS, Uni of Southampton | / K \ | Xanadu sure worked well for |
| http://zepler.net/~lionsphil | \__-_/ | Tim Berners-Lee!"-Ted Nelson |
