----- Original Message ----- From: "Johan Aires Rastén" To: openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [openbeos-cdt] Close window button Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 20:26:26 +0100 I've been thinking a little about the square icon that closes a window (I can imagine you all go *sigh* here) and I think it's not as good as it could be. It's a button but it looks like a checkbox. Obviously people will learn pretty quick that it isn't a checkbox, but I don't think it's good design to use the same design for different kinds of widgets. It could become more of a problem if an application needs to use close buttons for something else than a window. I can't make any kind of connection between a square and "close", so to me it doesn't make much sense. Maybe someone initially thought it should represent "nothing" but an empty box could equally mean "new". It also looks a little like an open door. And "X" is kinda universally accepted as close. Not just talking about other OS:es but also interfaces on web pages, devices, etc. It's also easier to tell someone "click the x button" and it's not as ambiguous as "click the square button". //Johan The use of 'X', and '-' for closing and minimizing a window are remnants from the very early days of GUI's. It seems to me in those days they just used letters for it out of necessity. Seems very outdated to still refer to that kind of a solution today (and maybe a bit geeky to hang on to it). In those other OS's there's a square and an 'X' used right alongside of it. This combination refers more to checkboxes than the always evidently graphical Haiku square in its distinctly seperate shaped and colored tab area. So, if you don't have the same 'checkbox association' with those other OS's, that only shows that you've gotten used to it. Which shows people can just as much or even more get used to the BeOS/Haiku solution. It's a cultural thing. Also: the combined two squares at the right side of a Haiku tab already neatly and graphically indicate minimize/maximize (cleverly done in one button instead of two). From that it's super easy to derive to any new user that the square on the left must be a -just as graphical- close window button. Meanwhile -- Be Yourself @ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com!