| 2006-09-16 11:26:26 |
Matthew Paul Thomas |
description |
I received a bug report about a ugly icon for the ok action the other day (#60424). However, it struck me that the fact that the button said OK was the real problem. So I looked it up in the Human Interface Guidelines and asked mpt for advice on the matter.
This seems to be what the HIG advices (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows-alert.html):
"Button Phrasing. Write button labels as imperative verbs, for example Save, Print. This allows users to select an action with less hesitation. An active phrase also fits best with the button's role in initiating actions, as contrasted with a more passive phrase. For example Find and Log In are better buttons than than Yes and OK."
With Matthew however, you never get simple answers :)
<andreasn> mpt: you know the Add/Remove Applications. Do you think it should say "Install" instead of OK in that dialog?
<andreasn> someone bugged me about the fact that the ok-icon was ugly, and I thought it was the ok action in itself that was the problem
<andreasn> perhaps "Install and Close" (?)
<mpt> andreasn, (0) insert standard protest here that g-a-i should be part of synaptic
<mpt> (1) It's traditionally bad for a single window to have both "Apply" and "OK"
<andreasn> :)
<andreasn> mpt: so the short time solution would be?
<mpt> andreasn, since this is a window rather than a dialog, I'd suggest removing "Cancel" and "OK", leaving behind "Revert" (disabled until you touch anything, maybe with a better name) and "Apply Changes"
<andreasn> mpt: thanks for the help, you rock dude!
<mpt> andreasn, you're welcome :-)
<mpt> andreasn, while you're reporting bugs, ;-) "Advanced" should end in "?"
<andreasn> mpt: you mean that it's a weird naming of that button?
<mpt> andreasn, and perhaps "Revert" would be better as "Reset to Current State" (though that's a bit clunky)
<andreasn> mpt: ok, so replace the current 3 buttons with 2 saying "Revert" "Apply changes"
<mpt> andreasn, "Reset" for the first one, I think
<andreasn> yeah, sorry, missed that
<mpt> it's not powerful enough to actually do reversion
So, the proposal is to label the buttons like this:
[Reset] [Apply Changes] |
gnome-app-install currently has "Apply", "Cancel", and "OK" buttons. This is confusing for two reasons: (1) It makes the window look like a dialog, when it isn't one. (2) "Apply" and "OK" in the same window often make people think that "OK" means "Close and do nothing else", so they always click "Apply" first.
One way of fixing these problems would be to change these three buttons to two:
* "Reset", which returns g-a-i to representing the current installation state;
* "Apply Changes", enabled only if there are changes to apply.
(This would also fix bug 60424.)
On a slightly unrelated note, "Advanced" should be "Advanced…". |
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