Fwd: [Usability] The sticky and slow keys dialogs

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

Forwarding to the accessibility list, they might have some thoughts on  
the desired behaviour...

Cheeri,
Calum.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dylan McCall <dylanmccall gmail com>
> Date: 15 March 2009 04:39:47 GMT
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] The sticky and slow keys dialogs
>
> Hi,
>
> I recently filed a fix in Ubuntu's bug tracker, regarding
> gnome-settings-daemon's keyboard accessibility plugin, which handles  
> the
> hotkeys to select different accessibility features (eg: Press Shift 5
> times). I got it to fall back to its own nice dialog box in the event
> that the notification daemon doesn't support actions on notification
> bubbles. (For Jaunty's new notify-osd, for example).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/342567
>
> This was somewhat interesting, because I suspect few people have  
> used a
> keyboard accessibility shortcut without the conventional
> notification-daemon for a while.
>
> There is no reason whatsoever to use a libnotify popup with this  
> system
> as it is, since it behaves exactly the same as the dialog box. The  
> only
> difference is that the dialog box is actually meant to be this way,
> whereas the notification bubble being displayed is entirely beyond the
> intent of that system. (It's an "Are you sure?" message demanding  
> input,
> not a notification). Using a dialog box exclusively reveals some  
> issues:
>
>      * There are no icons for the action buttons. Icons would help  
> give
>        these some context. "Deactivate" and "Don't Deactivate" looks a
>        bit weird at first glance.
>      * Right now the system enables an accessibility feature as soon  
> as
>        the user hits its shortcut; the confirmation dialog is really
>        just to disable the feature if it is unwanted. (Unless I am
>        thoroughly mistaken). What if the user hits Alt after
>        accidentally enabling Sticky Keys? I actually did that while
>        developing this and got confused. I was then unable to click on
>        Disable, since my clicking became Alt Clicking. A user unaware
>        of the sticky keys feature would have been doomed.
>      * The dialog can easily get lost in the stack of windows. Try
>        navigating GNOME with your Alt key stuck and not knowing why.
>        Not fun. This dialog needs to be adjusted so that it is always
>        on top or at least visible on the window list.
>
>
>
> On another thought entirely, I was looking into just stripping actions
> from the existing notification bubbles and rethinking the things,  
> which
> would make it nice and transparent instead of being a big brick that
> flies at the user's workflow. If he wanted to disable or enable the
> feature again, he could just follow the directions clearly outlined in
> the notification bubble already (eg: Press Shift 5 times). I think  
> that
> could even be a decent thing with the normal notification daemon.
>
> At the moment the notification bubbles SHOULD be passive; "click me if
> you made a mistake, but otherwise ignore me because I'm just letting  
> you
> know..." but they are not; they demand attention and input. The user  
> is
> asked to click Activate even though the feature has already been
> activated, where the real reason is just to get rid of an obtrusive  
> box.
> Getting rid of those buttons would deal with that issue.
>
>
> I think this stuff could do with some extra pondering :)
>
>
> Bye,
> Dylan
> _______________________________________________
> Usability mailing list
> Usability gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            OpenSolaris Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems