On Thu, 2006-03-23 at 17:51 +0000, Joachim Noreiko wrote: > --- Shaun McCance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Thu, 2006-03-23 at 14:50 +0000, Alan Horkan > > wrote: > > > > Developers should be slapped for not properly > > labelling things. > > > (Reading documentation to find out what things do > > should be an option not > > > a necessity.) > > > > > > > Oh, come now. We use iconography for all sorts of > > purposes > > in our interfaces. Should drop-down menus remove > > their arrows > > in favor of a "Select" label? Should disclosure > > triangles be > > removed in favor of "Open/close group" buttons? > > > > This need to label everything gives us bulky and > > cumbersome > > interfaces. One reason Mac interfaces often feel > > slick and > > efficient is that Apple isn't afraid to use their > > icons. > > I'm taking a wander through some of the dialogs on my > mac... > The non-labelled buttons I see are: > > Little round '?' for help in dialogs > + and - to add and remove items in a list (eg list of > printers)
These are largely what I was referring to, as well as some of the icons in iTunes: http://kwc.org/blog/archives/desktop.itunes.jpg Although I think iTunes tends too much towards not having labels. I'm a big fan of using iconography (not necessarily just image icons, but more generally symbols that represent things) for common and standard operations. The Help button is a perfect example. Because Apple uses the single ? icon very effectively, they can put it almost anywhere in an interface. Add and Remove are also good examples. Whenever we use them, they end up feeling awkward, occupying a disproportionately large amount of space that ought to be used to display more data. We have a love affair with icons alongside text, but we're afraid to let them stand on their own. We even default to icons+text toolbars. -- Shaun _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
