Matthew Nish-Lapidus wrote: >Can anybody think of a case where the current on/off state of a device isn't immediately obvious?
A few years ago I had a computer that had a push button power switch, with no indication on the switch as to the device state. It was quite tower computer that sat on the floor. Every couple weeks, one of the guys would turn off the monitor while it was running a long process and I'd come up and push the power button to turn it on. ...oops. It took three times before I learned to check the monitor every time. The issue with onscreen toggle buttons is whether it represents its 'state' or the 'action' to be taken. Most 'normal' non-toggle buttons display the action that occur when pressed. In a dialog you have 'OK' and 'Cancel'. This is usually clear unless you have text that creates a double negative. Toggles, on the other hand, though not universally, typically show the state. They're not alone - radio buttons and check boxes show state as well. Unfortunately, there are many cases where designers have displayed action instead of state, or more often I think the indication is ambiguous. One of the worst examples I can think of was in an older Treo active call screen. In the row of toggle buttons along the bottom of the active call screen, some indicated state while others showed the possible action. Along side of these was also a normal button which didn't toggle and it showed its action, but had the same visual style as the toggles in the row. How much more confusing could it be? Conversely, I think the iPhone gives an excellent example of toggle buttons. These use 3 indications to confirm to the user what it means: 1) display of text of the state, 2) a virtual slider from left to right, like a physical power button, as others have mentinoed and 3) the use of color, but not green and red - these use a hilite color and dim state which is magic for me. I'm not sold on green:red. Red could still indicate having power. In fact I have a charger that glows red when it has power and green when charging. My son kept thinking it was the reverse. Green was power and red charging. (but technically it's a 3 state button so this example is cheating) /Kam On 10/13/07, Kam Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:09:19, pauric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > "Technological progress positively sucks some times. I'm sure the > > glowing screens are touted as a "feature", too." > > > > Go over to your stationary area. Do a blank (black) photocopy on to a > > transparent sheet. Stick the sheet on to your alarm clock. > > > > p.hixit > > > > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > > Posted from the new ixda.org > > http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=21392 > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help > > > > > > -- > > /Kam -- /Kam ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
