After confirming with David that we can use animated gifs in Widgets,
I've put together an animated version of the rollover.
In addition, I've changed the checkmark to an eye (the idea being
that if we're not going to use standard widgets, it might be less
confusing to use a completely different metaphor).
I've also created a generic collection icon (it's supposed to look
like a tag, as in a price tag), but right now it mostly looks like an
ipod mini.
Again, please drag into a browser to see animation. Still needs
visual tweaking, but the concept is there.
Mimi
On Oct 27, 2005, at 3:42 PM, Davor Cubranic wrote:
Mimi Yin wrote:
I think this is something that mostly needs user observations. I
agree it's a sticky issue, but it was the solution we decided to
try. We went through a process. We considered many of the
suggestions that have been raised and we settled on the "checkbox
on rollover" solution as one worth testing in the field.
[...]
We understood it was unconventional, but we wanted to leave
options open to unconventional solutions
[...]
I think we should give it a chance to work or not work as well as
ourselves an opportunity to observe people using the sidebar and
collect feedback from a broad spectrum of users (especially ones
that don't think about how software is designed ;o) before
deciding one way or the other. More comments in line...
That's a worthwhile idea and I'm fine with that. What might help is
to adopt unconventional solutions in the rest of the UI. (Not that
any are coming to my mind right now though.) It's like UI in
computer games: game designers are free to adopt highly
unconventional, but also highly effective and often immediately
usable, interfaces because it's immediately obvious that they are
not following standard desktop application guidelines. But when
everything else in the UI looked like standard widgets, the icon's
behaviour on mouseover looked like a bug to someone who was just
fooling around with the UI for 15 minutes without reading much user
docs or the functional spec. :-) Sorry, I may have dragged this
discussion for too long. I'd be happy to try out various designs
since this is the one time when Chandler can easily afford to play
with alternatives without upsetting an established user base, and
obviously the user testing that you've been conducting should be
even more useful.
Davor, I'm curious to know what you think of the insignia on the
doorway metaphor I proposed in my last email...
I think it's not a bad metaphor, but it depends on a) people
approaching the door in the first place; b) being familiar with the
metaphor; and c) the door recognizing when someone approaches it. A
user will approach the collection with the intention of selecting
it (a), I suppose, so that when the mouse comes over it the icon
changes (c), and so (b) remains the main challenge. Maybe the
mouseover icon could be bigger and show a square and a checkmark
instead of a circle and a checkmark -- I think would look more
"selectable"? Or use an icon of a pin?
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