Re: [Usability] Re: GNOME 2 screenshot - GDict design

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 04:48:13PM -0800, Seth Nickell wrote:
> > Oh, and it does not have a preferences dialog :-) It is just plain gtk
> > but works fine for my needs. Gdict could do something similar that is
> > very simple:
> > 
> > .--------------------------------------------.
> > | Lookup word: [_gnome_________________][go!]|
> > |--------------------------------------------|
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |         word definition area               |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |                                            |
> > |--------------------------------------------|
> > |                                  [ Close ] |
> > `--------------------------------------------'
> 
> You probably want Copy/Cut/Paste functionality. . . .

Not really. Just Copy.

>                                           . . . Though technically the
> user can right click on the text box in GTK2, I think its nice to
> provide it in a menu. . . .

(Well, it's still a menu, but whatever.)

The text box should be read-only and the right-click menu should either
be completely disabled or provide operations in addition to Copy such as
a Define command and a Web Search command.

>                  . . .Of course, once you've added a menu the [Close]
> button goes away. . . .

The Close button goes away anyway.

>             . . . I would reccomend against a toolbar, and if there is
> one it should only contain Copy/Cut/Paste ("preferences" and "quit"
> really aren't things that should be showing up on toolbars ;-)
> 
>  --------------------------------------------
> | File  Edit  View  Help                     |
> .--------------------------------------------.
> | Lookup word: [_gnome_____________][_Lookup]|
> |--------------------------------------------|
> |     Look in: | All dictionaries           || <- shown from view menu
> |--------------------------------------------|
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
> |         word definition area               |
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
> |                                            |
>  --------------------------------------------

This is becoming quite garish. Use a simple utility window and be done with it.

+-----------------------------------------+
| [ Copy ] | Define: [___________] [ Go ] |
+-----------------------------------------+
|                                         . 
|  <definition>                            .
|
.
.


> Pressing enter in the lookup word text box should activate the lookup,
> and the text box should be focused by default when you open the window.
> After entering in a word, the focus should be in the word definition
> area so scrolling with the arrow keys works (this is "like a web
> browser"). . . .

Leave the keyboard focus in the define field and scroll the main window on
the appropriate key presses. Switch the focus only on demand and most people
will be satisfied since focus on the definition isn't really useful for
anything on which you wouldn't already be using the pointer.

>      . . . So for an advanced user the interaction pattern would be
> "activate gdict, type word, press enter, look at result, CTRL-Q".
> 
> File -> Save Definition
>      -> ---------------
>      -> Quit
> 
> Edit -> Cut
>      -> Copy
>      -> Paste
>      -> ---------------
>      -> Preferences
> 
> View -> Show/Hide dictionary selection (by default it should be hidden)

These short menus should be a clue that something is wrong.

> > Since there is the applet already, the main window really can be just a
> > dialog IMHO. So no toolbar or whatnot is needed really. And heck, just
> > make it look good by default, we dont need gdict.themes.org :-)
> > Wordinspect looks very slick and it is just black and white with some
> > boldface here and there. Works great.
> 
> If you're going to use custom colours, you need to make sure that they
> are not essential to the information for accesibility reasons. If they
> are, you need to provide ways of changing them (which gdict currently
> does).
> 
> I haven't thought about the "Spell Check" feature (bad name, but a
> useful feature) much yet... so maybe more on that later. I would think
> that it would be fine for it to only be activated if the user enters a
> word thats not in the dictionary. . . .

Command-line dict presents alternatives when the word is not found. These
could be clickable like web browser links; so could synonyms, antonyms, et al.

>                             . . . Presumably its not a "generic"
> spellcheck you expect them to be using from other programs, its spelling
> help for words entered into the gdict lookup word bar. Also, it might do
> well to display the list of possible matches as hyperlinks. That would
> make the "lookup" vs "spell" interaction clearer. I always end up
> fiddling there to try and get things to display in the lookup window
> after I see the match I want.
> 
> wrt to the applet, the lookup button should be on the right side of the
> text box. Other than that I think its fine (I don't really think you
> need a label too, though a "What is this" dialog would be helpful the
> first time its added to the panel).

Alert.

> Also remember to have mneumonics / accelerators / whatever you prefer to
> call 'em on buttons so they'll be accessible (and convenient for quick
> use too! gdict is the sort of thing that should be really fast with
> keynav).
>
> -Seth


Cheers,
Greg Merchan.