Patrick Lauke wrote:
Geoff Deering wrote:
With all due respects this is the way default graphical user interface
on operating systems are designed to function.
From page 158 of "The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design";
But we're talking about the design of web sites, not software that should
visually integrate with, and adhere to, the OS defaults.
It would be very strange indeed if web based user agents did not conform
to the programming conventions for software interface guidelines. The
minute that happens there is a breakdown in a system to be able to
communicate its state clearly with the user, through whatever
application or device it is running.
This is a web standards based group, and I feel that web standards based
developers can gain a deeper appreciation of the work that has gone into
these standards if they are more aware of the relationship with the
principles of software interface design and the interrelationship of
user agents and digital devices. Understanding this, and it's history,
can only help.
The user agent has a completely interdependent relationship with the OS,
its system environment and resources, it actually uses these system
resources, where described in markup, and are then placed on the browser
canvas as operating system resources (form controls).
The people that worked on the various drafts of HTML are well aware of
this, because the state of form controls are change via the markup.
This shows that markup-user agent-OS have an interdependent relationship
via software handles, and that the user agent is requesting the OS to
communicate it's state to the user. This has a universal meaning across
multiple devices.
So I cannot see how your argument applies, to me, it doesn't stand up.
A designer should not implement a design element where their design
falsely indicates to the user that the form control is in another state
than it is actually in. This is misrepresentation of state.
This also leads to another problem, in that if users configure their
operating system to a custom scheme, unwittingly the web designer may be
indicating to the user that a field may be read only even if it is not
grey. How does the designer know whether to use grey or not? They
don't. All they know is the majority of users probably do not customise
this setting.
This is why I believe that it is best to not style form controls (or at
least minimally)
Taking this thought further, they shouldn't style the size, typeface, colour
of body text, or any other aspect of the web page either, as it may unwittingly
clash with, or go against, user defined settings?
No, I'm not saying that at all. That is different than what I have
stated. This has to do with a standard way of communicating state in
both OS and user agent. The point is that these design standards have
reserved meaning, and if the designer does not pay heed to this they may
not communicate the correct state of the control to the user.
Personally, I still think "don't style form controls" is far too sweeping a
rule to catch certain edge cases. As you said yourself "or at least
minimally"...
which is very difficult to quantify, and depends on the specific situation.
It may be, I agree with that. My point is, just be aware of this and
make sure you do not inadvertently create an unintentional conflict of
communication of state of form control because of a lack of awareness
this standard way of representing state.
Oh well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one,
P
It's a free world, and I do appreciate reading your opinions.
-------------
Geoff
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