[openbeos-cdt] Re: Close window button

  • From: "Humdinger" <humdingerb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:36:41 +0100

-- Eddy Groen, on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:14:42 +0100:
> I was thinking:
> - If I turn my TV on/off, do I press an X? No, I press an empty 
> square,
> embedded in the context of being below the display.

Mine has a symbol in it.

> - If I turn my desktop computer on/off, do I press an X? No, I press 
> an
> empty circle embedded in the context of being below the "on" light. 
> The same
> thing goes for the monitor: a big empty rectangle next to the "on" 
> light.

Mine has a symbol in it.

> - If I check my battery status on my MacBook Pro, does the button 
> have
> anything engraved? No, it's an empty circle, embedded in a context of 
> eight
> little light points.

I don't have this button. :)

> So I do not think very highly of the argument that because it has by 
> now
> become a computer convention that an X is used to close the window, 
> it has
> to apply at all times. Equally so does not every electronics 
> manufacturer
> put one of those circles with a stripe in it on an on/off button, 
> provided
> the context is clear enough for the user to understand it's an on/off 
> button

The crux. If you find a square button you cannot assume it's the On/Off 
button. Whereas there are only very few buttons on today's TVs, a GUI 
can be full with them and have all kinds of functions.
 
> Will a user understand that a window needs to be closed by pushing a 
> square
> in one of its top corners? As -Meanwhile- said: if you think they 
> don't get
> it, you are underestimating the user.
--snip
> Lastly, the checkbox argument. Again, we are talking about *context* 
> here.
> And again, you are underestimating a user when he cannot distinguish 
> a
> checkbox in a window panel from a checkbox with a different purpose 
> in an
> entirely different interface section.

I'll stop posting on this topic. Obviously nobody reads what I write 
and I'm sick of repeating myself: Nobody mistakes the simple window-
closing square for a checkbox. But you can't use a simple square just 
about anywhere else in the GUI and expect someone to guess what it 
does. So, you'll probably put an "X" into it like all the OSs. Having a 
subtle "X" mean "Close" everywhere could introduce consistency.

Regards,
Humdinger

-- 
--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-
Deutsche Haiku News @ http://www.haiku-gazette.de


Other related posts: