| There are also other options to consider as well. For example, implementing the calendar sidebar to function like Apple iCal's.
Selection=Checking off the calendar. Which would
1. save us screen real estate 2. save the user from the clutter of a sidebar with 3 columns of icons 3. make it inevitable for the user to discover overlays On Nov 1, 2005, at 10:04 AM, John Anderson wrote: Hi Mimi,
I recall a UI designer, whose name I can't remember, once said that you
should evaluate a design by looking at 3 criteria: clarity, efficiency, and
aesthetics, and in that order. So looking at this design, I have the
following thoughts:
Clarity: Clarity is supposedly enhanced if the design is familiar, because
it reminds you of something in the real world or follows a familiar
convention for computer users. Although some users might recognize the
eye icon in the design, I don't think that knowlege will help them understand
it's function, e.g. include the collection in the summary view, in the same way
a check box might. It also has the disadvantage of not following a familiar
computer convention.
Efficiency: Here the design does very well. It packs checkabliity, color and
iconness in 16X16 pixels and doesn't impose any unnecessary extra steps to
get your job done.
Aesthetics: The idea here is how does it look. This can be in the eye of the
beholder, but in general, some designs just stand out from others. It's why
Macintosh UI looks better than Windows UI. For example, most people think
the old "burn icon" in iTunes, the OSX "Genie Animation" and
www.imaginationcubed.com rank high. In this respect, I think the proposed
design is hampered by too few pixels to work with, and the animation will
likely seem unnecessarily distracting to users.
Finally, there is the question of implementation, which impacts not the
quality of the design, but the cost of the project. The proposed design
would be more expensive to implement because it doesn't take advantage of a
class library. (Albeit, since that last design was also completely custom
UI, we now have a more flexible implementation that makes it easier to try
out other designs). But, in the end, I think this may not be the most
important issue to spend our limited implementation dollars on.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution, and I think this might
be one of those times. If you want an icon, check box, and color, I suspect
that the simple solution of an icon and colored toggle control, (e.g. the
Thunder bird "read" toggle control) is probably best. To me, on clarity,
efficiency and aesthetics it's as good or better than the proposed design in
all ways except one: it takes more screen space. However, I think in this
case, screen real estate is a fine resource to use. I remember at NeXT when
Steve wanted to make large icons, there was resistance at first, but after
seeing the result, both on NEXTSTEP and now on the Mac, I think it's best to
not compact too much design in a small space.
John
Mimi Yin wrote: 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.
<mime-attachment.gif> 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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