On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 5:01 PM, Benjamin Otte <[email protected]> wrote:
so lets take this particular point as an example of what i think the basic problem is here: > * There's button(s) that say ( Notes | Edit ) > How are these buttons different from notebooks? Is it just visually > different or is it a completely different interaction? Because from > the interaction described it looks like a notebook to me, just with a > different UI. But I can't really pinpoint what's missing from > GtkNotebook for this. Also, should we try to get rid of notebooks and > replace it with buttons like these in other places? this is a cart vs. horse problem. i think you're absolutely correct that functionally, this is identical to a notebook. but there's function, and there's design. this design calls for an alignment of UI elements that isn't possible to accomplish with the current widget set (how would you get that More combo/menubar/button into the tab list?). is the design wrong to attempt that? if its wrong, why? if its right, how to accomodate the design if the current widgets don't. in most of what you've written here, you seem to put the widget set first, and you seem to be suggesting that UI design should work with the constraints that flow from the widget set, because that will result in good UIs. the other position is that good UI design should come first, and then the widget set and specific widgets need to be modified to accomodate the design(s). in this case, that would imply a rather complicated change (or maybe its simple) to the notebook widget. so there are 4 choices: * possibly complex and far-reaching changes to existing widgets - no new widgets, but the design can be supported * new widgets - creates ambiguity in the widget set, but the design can be supported * modify the design so that it can implemented with existing widgets * reject design because the widget set can't support it my feeling on this is that it depends a lot on the quality of the design and the resistance on the part of the designer to modifying it so that the design can be implemented using the existing widget set. _______________________________________________ usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
