Re: [Usability] Re: [Fwd: Re: Your final comments on gswitchit in2.4...]

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 12:52, Reinout van Schouwen wrote:

> Aha, now I understand. Well, a button in a notebook page for
> showing/hiding other notebook pages is pretty unusual. I don't know if the
> HIG says anything about this but it definately breaks the real-world
> notebook metaphor!

>From memory, the HIG basically says that controls on one tab shouldn't
affect the state or appearance of controls on another tab in the same
notebook.  I haven't had a chance to look at gswitchit  yet so I can't
really comment specifically... but normally if a control altered the
number of pages in a notebook you'd probably expect to see that control
somewhere outside the notebook control itself.


> > > IIRC an "expander" button was recommended for disclosing advanced
> > > options?
> > Sorry, I dont not get it. Well, I will have a look at HIG again.
> 
> I don't know if this is covered in the HIG. Calum? :-)

IIRC there isn't currently anything in the HIG about expander controls
because there wasn't a standard one available when we wrote it.  They
are pretty useful for those dialogs where you can (literally) draw a
line between basic and more advanced functions, though, so personally
I'd encourage their use where appropriate... and we should say so in the
HIG too, assuming everyone else agrees :)

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum.benson@sun.com            GNOME Desktop Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems