From: Rick S. <ric...@ke...> - 2009-11-05 15:35:48
|
I don't see how a drop list will cost any real estate at all (other than a few pixels for the arrow). See attached samples: eye1.gif: User is currently watching the page (as noted by the "watch is on" icon). Drop list has 2 choices, but only one is valid. The only possible action is to *stop* watching. eye1.gif: User is currently not watching the page (as noted by the "watch is off" icon). The only possible action is to *start* watching. -R --- Greetings from Sanford, NC, USA! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Desilets, Alain" <Ala...@nr...> To: "Rick Sapir" <ric...@ke...>; "Tikiwiki developers" <tik...@li...> Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:08 AM Subject: RE: [Tikiwiki-devel] The proverbial watch icon > Just my opinion, but I expect buttons in a button bar to perform an > action. Opening a menu IS an action no. There are plenty of examples of buttons that open up something which allows you to further specify the details of the action you want to happen. As I am writing this message in Outlook, I see a "To..." button. When I click on it, I get a dialog box where I can choose the addressees. That's not that different from clicking on an eye icon and getting a popup menu where I can say whether I want the traces to be on or off. > I disagree. I think the icon should continue to convey the ACTION. The STATE > can *easily* be inferred based on the action. For example, if the action is > "Start watching this page." then the current status is obviously "not > watching." I have observed many users in the course of training sessions, or in the course of starting a tiki site and supporting users by email at the beginning, and my experience contradicts what you say. Users do not find this obvious, even with the yellow info box (which, btw only shows up when you hover the mouse over the icon). Furthermore, my (admittedly very small) survey indicates that even when you tell people that the icon refers to an action (not to the state), they are confused about what action it refers too (whereas they are always clear about what state it might refer to). Hence, my recommendation that, in the case of a toggle, we use the look of the icon to convey state as opposed to action. > >For now, info about ACTION will be conveyed via the yello info box that > >pops up when you leave the mouse over the icon. > > This text is controlled by the TITLE element of the <A> tag. I *think* this > behavior may vary, depending on the browser & platform. In some instances > the ALT text of the IMG (which is *inside* the <A> tag) is displayed instead > of the link's title. AFAIK, this *is not* controlled by TIki. OK. So we need to specify the information about the button in both place. Thx for the info. > If it is truly this confusing, Believe me, it is! I have seen it many times. > why not simply remove the icon completely and > use a simple drop list (like we do for backlinks) with two options: > - Watch this page. (i.e., the current state is "not watching") > - Stop watching this page (i.e., the current state is "watching") Actually, that sounds like a good idea. But we need to be careful about not using too much real-estate. What about a short picklist with two elements: On, Off, with an eye icon right in front of it. And surround the pair with a border so that it is clear that they go together. Alain |