Re: [Usability] colon ':' in text field label

[Liam R E Quin <liam holoweb net>]

On Fri, 2008-08-08 at 15:04 +0200, Luca Bruno wrote:
[...]
> These are some screenshots of my latest application:
> http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2384/2743364149_3258418491_o.png
> http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3167/2743368623_842a83468c_o.png
> 
> What do you think about? Are colons really a need?

Thinking froma graphical design perspective, your 2nd example has
a problem in common with a lot of GNOME applications - there is
a weak vertical centreal axis created by the two columns, and
the items in two columns are more closely connected with each
other than with rows.  Try the "squint test" - half-close your
eyes so you can't read it - and you'll see what I mean.  It's
especially strong as the words aren't in a language I can read,
of course.

The usual fix for this would be to right-align the labels, and
then the colon would both strengthen the vertical axis annd help
people make the connection in rows.  But I think the HIG
unfortunately favours left-adusted labels, and in that case the
colon is even more important to show the reader that the
things way way way over to the left are actually labels.

If you could move them closer, e.g. by line-breaking SER.T di
provenienza and rewording Data di ammissione al trattamento,
it would help a lot.

But as it stands I think the colons would be a great imrovement
here.

I wish the Microsoft Windows 3 (and earlier) fashion for
drawing huge ugly boxes around text fields had not caught on;
I liked the clean underline/ledge that the open look ui introduced
a lot better.  But I digress.  I vote for the colon.

Oh. in your first screen shot I cannot tell if the
bold Elaborato applies to both left and right sides of that
vertical divider or not.  The horizontal centering there is
a mess.  Left-align the sub-headings and take out the vertical
rule, or make it go all the way up to show that Elaborato Elaborato da
is one field and Data elaborazione is th other, if that's the case.

best,


Liam


-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org www.advogato.org