1. Success and Failure representation Using symbols to indicate success is clunky -- the symbol carries only one bit of useful information. Instead of a symbol show the change resulting from the action taken.
Move your mouse: => mouse pointer moves as well -- "Success!", no symbols are needed; => mouse pointer does not move -- "Failure", show guidance for system error correction. Every interaction with computer results in success (or failure), hence there is no one symbol to indicate success. If you must, use checkmark. 2. Design Patterns for "Details" Consider this: every time you click a link, you expect to see "details" behind that link. The same is true for tabs and other navigation widgets. -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is design of time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 6:31 PM, Evan K. Stone < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm wrestling with the problem of how to tackle a couple of design > problems at the moment, and could use a little advice and help: > > 1. Success and Failure Symbolic Representations > > One thing I've been dealing with is how to represent success or failure > of a process through colors, shapes, and symbols, and I'm just not > really satisfied with the things that I've come up with. Is there any > interesting prior art in this regard that someone would like to share? > > As a corollary thought: TiVo uses green & red buttons with Thumbs > Up/Thumbs Down idiom. People in the US seem to get that paradigm, but I > was just curious to know if they use a different paradigm in their other > international markets (it looks like the device for Mexico has retained > the thumbs, but I couldn't tell with the controller for Taiwan -- the > controller seems to have the green/red buttons). Additionally, since I > don't think my designs are going international (for now), that paradigm, > while a bit campy, might actually work for the above problem (I was also > considering [big!] plus and minus symbols). > > I would really appreciate some feedback on this if anyone feels like > giving it... ;) > > > 2. Design Patterns for "Details" > > The second issue is how to display "more information" or "details" for a > process that has completed (with either success or failure). > > Typical patterns I've seen are the Mac OS "Disclosure Triangle", or in > Windows quite frequently there will be a button with the label "Details >>>" to expand or contract a dialog depending on the orientation of the > brackets, or also a tiny button with a plus sign to perform the > revelation. I'm sure there are more that I just haven't recalled or > encountered. > > Of these, I think I'm more agreeable to the disclosure triangle, but I > was just curious to see if anyone had come across or was working on more > interesting patterns for this problem. I guess I just don't want to do > what's easiest for the developer (i.e. me, in this case), but rather I'd > like to explore some new patterns if they exist. > > Thanks in advance! > > evan k. stone | ux | dragnet solutions, inc. > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
