Re: Gnome style guide

[sungod <sungod atdot org>]

This doesn't seem to accomodate for decent ergonomics. While it may look
friendly, it's time-consuming: people who expect to be asked this question
and know what they want can't merely look at the buttons and click the
right one; they have to read the actual question, figure out if it's
phrased the way they expected, rethink their answer in case it isn't, and
then perform the click.

In answering a dialog box, you are commanding the computer to DO
something. Therefore, all answers to simple dialog boxes should be verbs:

"What do you want to do with recent changes to this document? 
[Save|Abandon|Cancel]"

If I've been around computers a month or two, I already know this
question is coming, so I don't have to wonder whether it's asking "Do you
want to save" or "Are you sure you want to quit." (The answers "yes" and
"no" mean opposite things in this case.) All I have to do is look at the
verbs themselves and tell it explicitly what I want.

Enough HCI language class... I gotta get back to work...

On Fri, 23 Apr 1999, Michael ROGERS wrote:

> >Hmmm.. Dialogues with words like OK and Cancel really do come
> >from the school of bad User Interface.  Buttons should be labeled
> >with a purpose.
> 
> True, although OK and Cancel are common and generally understood. My 
> point was that the default should be the button which confirms or 
> completes the request rather than the one which cancels it.
> 
> > What does OK mean?
> 
> It means, like, yeah, sure, whatever.
> 
> >Better to have a Cancel / Save pair of buttons for example.  Worst 
> >case ever, which is far to common are the Yes/No/Cancel options.  
> >Whats the obvious difference between No and Cancel??
> 
> To use a common example, "Save before exiting? Yes/No/Cancel": Yes 
> means save and exit, No means don't save but exit, and Cancel means 
> don't save or exit. I generally understand Cancel to mean "Pretend I 
> never made the request I just made, and get rid of this dialog without 
> changing anything." However, you can make your button smaller if you 
> just label it Cancel.

-- 

"The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you
get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the
office." -Robert Frost