Re: GEP 6: Toolbar

[Dan Winship <danw ximian com>]

> but having attempted to write a few guidelines about priority text
> (hereafter called 'PT'!) for the HIG, I can certainly think of a few
> usability problems they could introduce:
> 
> - Every button with PT potentially takes up space that a more useful
> toolbar button could occupy instead.  This would deprive the user of
> these extra buttons even if they never use PT.

The flip side of this argument is: a button with PT is bigger than one
without, so PT makes the important buttons easier to hit as compared to
the non-PT ones (Fitts' Law), thus increasing usability. By letting the
app and/or the user pick which icons get labels, you can get a better
mix of "number of icons" and "usability of icons" than you could if
labels had to be all-or-nothing.

-- Dan