Dialog buttons



In the usability mailing list and in the #usability channel on
irc.gnome.org we've been discussing dialogs in GNOME and GTK+, and
dialog buttons in particular. However, for the most part we are not
accessibility experts and we'd like to know if anyone here can give us
any input from an accessibility perspective. Here are the issues we've
been discussing:

Default buttons:
The default button is that which is activated when the enter key is
pressed, regardless of which widget has the focus. The contentious
issue is whether developers should avoid setting a destructive action
as the default or whether they should choose the action the user is
most likely to want to perform regardless of how destructive it may
be. As we've discussed it so far, it's largely a matter of finding a
good trade-off between safety and convenience.

Default button movement:
Currently, when any button on the bottom row of a dialog has the focus
it will also become the default. When another widget is selected the
default will revert to the original default. Is this behaviour
desirable? Should the default ever change?

Button layout:
Should button layout follow the Windows style of having the action
buttons on the left or a more Mac-like style of having action buttons
on the right? The former is more consistent with other platforms, the
latter generally thought to be more comfortable.

Any thoughts?

colin

  _____________________________                            ____
  rtnl  http://rational.cjb.net     c z robertson ndirect co uk
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