[openbeos] Re: BeOS/Haiku UI question
- From: Simon Taylor <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:41:45 +0000
This is really something the UI guidlines should cover, I don't think Be ever
actually produced any (their newsletter archive has a lot of talk about them
being in progress).
For me BeOS is primarily about responsiveness. That basically means settings
should be instantly applied as they are changed. Not many BeOS pref panels have
a "Default" button and I'm not sure they're particularly useful - if the
settings are applied instantly the user can test and "Revert" to the previous
ones (which would be the default on the first opening of the settings panel
anyway). Complicated settings panels that require more testing from the user
about whether or not it's a good choice could have a button to set defaults I
suppose - but if the user can make things so bad by changing the settings that
a defaults button is required then maybe the question of "why are we actually
presenting this as an option to the user?" should be asked.
Settings that obviously can't be applied in real time (screen prefs and others)
should have an "Apply" button.
I think the normal close button should just do that - close the window. The
next time I opened the window I would expect it to be in exactly the same state
as when I closed it.
The way I think about it, settings are always there determining how my computer
works, whether or not I have a window open to show them to me. Thus I find the
whole windows "Cancel" concept quite confusing - I don't actually want to
"Cancel" my printer settings as I still want windows to know about the printer
I had configured. What I actually want to do is "Revert" the settings to how
they were before I started changing them and then close the window.
Hence I'd go with a (Apply)/Revert/Close button selection. I really think from
a conceptual point of view this is this best possible view of what the user can
do with settings.
Simon
> From: "Curtis Wanner" <katisu@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 2006/02/15 Wed AM 05:34:45 GMT
> To: <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [openbeos] Re: BeOS/Haiku UI question
>
>
> > But what about the tab Close button? Should it have the same effect as
> > the Cancel button? Or should it act as the Done button? What is the
> > expected behaviour in BeOS/Haiku?
> >
> > Please advise.
> >
> > Koki
>
> I don't know if there is a set standard. I'm used to tab close acting as
> cancel. From a user perspective, I would want to explicitly state that I
> want the settings changed by pressing a Done or Apply button.
>
> Your model would only apply to modal windows. There are some cases where it
> is convenient to have a non-modal window and it stays open after applying
> the settings. In this case I would have an Apply button that would save the
> settings without closing the window. This is assuming that the changes
> aren't immediate as Stephan mentioned. In that case, tab close would leave
> the new settings in place.
>
> Stephan also brings up a good point about the settings themselves. There is
> default settings, the previous settings, and the new settings. In some
> applications, the window has a custom settings list to bring up preset
> settings. Default and current saved settings can be included in this list.
> Of course, a Default or Revert button would be a lot easier way to go
> programming wise.
>
> Curtis
>
>
>
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