(3) Regarding the check boxes and radio controls on the Individual screen, it has already been pointed out by others familiar with PC programming that this is simply the result of sloppy screen design and coding -- not separating the actual control from its label. There is no reason why the active area needs to be any larger than the box or circle itself, but there is reason why it should not be. Labels are a totally separate issue from the active control and they should never have been active in the first place, no matter how long or short they are, or whether they are the exact length of the displayed text or contain a lot of extra blank space. If the text that constitutes the label is hot, then the preceding box and circle are not only unnecessary, but they are completely misleading to the user, since they serve no purpose whatsoever.
Having kept quiet until now, I have to argue against this logic.
First, it *is* standard Windows behavior that the label for a radio button or check box be hot. Your argument about this should be with Microsoft, not the Legacy folk.
Second, I really like having the labels hot and am very annoyed that web browsers don't use the same standard.
And finally, your argument about the "box and circle" being unnecessary and misleading is just not supportable. The box and circle most obviously serve the purpose of indicating the current state of the control. And the user is quite free to click in the box or circle area with the resulting action exactly as expected. The addition of hot labels makes mousing around much easier because there is that larger target for those of us who may have some fine motor control issues. And those people who use keyboards instead of mice are rewarded because the labels are highlighted while tabbing through, and that's much easier to see than just highlighting the box or circle (I don't much like the tabbing order of the controls, however).
Dennis Nichols
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