Re: [Usability] Theme Instant Apply

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On May 2, 2006, at 3:29 AM, Sven Jaborek wrote:
> Am Sonntag, den 30.04.2006, 15:42 +0100 schrieb Thomas Wood:
> > Could anyone give me some advice on bug 149323 (HIG issues with Theme
> > Preferences). The issue is that the theme manager often takes longer
> > than one second to apply a theme, so therefore it should not be 
> > instant apply. Would it be acceptable to most people to change the 
> > theme manager to explicit apply?

That something takes longer than one second to put into effect is not a 
good reason to make it explicit-apply. (If it was, mail clients 
wouldn't have offline modes.)

Instead, I suggest: Reserve room for a small indeterminate progress 
indicator (a.k.a. a throbber) and a label directly underneath the list. 
Then whenever a theme has been selected for at least half a second but 
hasn't finished applying yet, show the progress indicator and label:

    |_______________________________________|V|

    @ Applying “Ocean Blue”...

When the theme has finished applying, hide the progress indicator and 
label. (The hiding and showing should not alter the size of the 
window.)

> imho, the fastest solution to this conflict is checkbox like:
> [x] apply new theme instantly

Or what? When the off state for a checkbox isn't obvious, use radio 
buttons instead:

    Apply new theme: (*) instantly  ( ) next Tuesday

> Users on slower systems can turn it off.
> ...

How would they know to do that, and why should they have to?

A computer should never ask you something that it can more cheaply 
calculate itself. My time is too valuable to answer questions about 
computer speed that the computer already knows.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/