User Interface Suggestions

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User Interface Suggestions
by Bill on Wednesday 21/Mar/2007, @19:52

Here are some user interface suggestions:

1) Don't use ellipses (...) to signify overflowing text. Instead, progressively fade the final three characters. This is already implemented in Kicker's taskbar for window titles that are too long (see attached screenshot). It would be nice if the fade-out approach was automatically available on all GUI items whose text might overflow and get cut off: drop down menus, tabs, text fields (URLs, search boxes), tooltips etc.

Fading the last couple of letters is analogous to but more space-efficient than the ellipses (...). Ellipses also have a completely different meaning in a menu item or button label: to tell the user they must provide information before completing their task (see
http://weblog.obso1337.org/2006/kde4-hig-request-1-the-ellipsis/). So we should avoid using ellipses to signify shortened words so as not to dilute its original meaning.

2) Dolphin: The Usability Team should take a look at the interaction of the Bookmark panel and the main panel(s) to the right. When I saw "Home" highlighted purple in the bookmark, I expected the contents of the Home Folder to be displayed, instead of Home/dl/temp.

3) In the Progress Manager search field (and for all other text fields, for that matter), there should be a dropdown containing previous searches. The magnifying glass should be a button to the left of the field that users can click. Some users aren't used to the command prompt, so you can't expect them to know that pressing ENTER executes the text -- they expect a clickable button.

4) Progress Manager: Is there really a need for a horizontal separator between the Configure button/Search field and the In Progress/Finished tabs? Same for the vertical separator between Configure button and the Search field.

5) KWord: Given that there is plenty of vertical space on the toolbar, why not make the Bold, Underline, Italic, Strikethrough buttons two-tiered (ie. arranged on top of each other using two rows)? Same for all the other buttons that don't have text captions.

6) Kword: Some of the separators seem redundant, like the one above "Scripts" on the right side. Also, why are there are there two types of separators (dotted and straight-lined)? And why are there fat black bars on the left and right side of KWord's text area?

Related Links

·   Articles on KDE Public Relations and Marketing
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File Attachment

fade_out.png
14KB (14844 bytes)

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by TonyB on Wednesday 21/Mar/2007, @21:42

"Also, why are there are there two types of separators (dotted and straight-lined)? " You mean in the toolbar?
The dotted ones indicates a toolbar that can be moved and re-docked or floated elsewhere on the screen( it's like the toolbar's "grippy" handle)
The straight ones are separators between items in the SAME toolbar.

That said, I'm sure there's still some refinement to the number/layout of the toolbars ( and hopefully the usabilty team will get involved, so we'll see some consistency between apps....even if only between the KOffice apps).

As for stacking the toolbars - that may indeed be possible with docking toolbars (can't try it just now )... I don't know if the toolbar button size / text display options can be set on a per-toolbar basis.

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Roderic Morris on Wednesday 21/Mar/2007, @21:45

I agree with your thoughts about ellipses. Not only would that be very useful (ellipses would only be used for menu entries that require more input), but it'd also look very slick.

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ellipsis
by Thomas Zander on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @00:54

You wrote;
"Ellipses also have a completely different meaning in a menu item or button label: to tell the user they must provide information before completing their task"

Actually; the meaning there is the same as the meaning here. It signifies there is information missing.

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Re: ellipsis
by ac on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @01:50

but you cannot know _what_ info is "missing"

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Re: ellipsis
by zonk on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @06:15

The difference is, whether the UI is missing information that you should provide, or if you are missing information that the UI should provide. IMHO it's quite a fundamental difference.

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Tiberiu Ichim on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @03:48

The fadout effect was the first thing I've tried to switch off when I started using the new KDEs, and the only thing I couldn't achieve. I feel that it stresses my eyes, as I'm struggling to read the fade out text. Wouldn't it be possible to have this effect configurable?

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Vlad on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @04:13

> I'm struggling to read the fade out text.

Actually the fade out effect lets you see more text than the ellipses do. With ellipses, the last three letters are completely replaced with three dots, which are not very informative. I'd rather have three slighly faded letters than no letters at all.

> Wouldn't it be possible to have this effect configurable?

Yup, I agree that it should be configurable.

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Matt on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @11:37

I would be very interested to hear what options are currently on the table for point 5. The mix of text under icon and icon only for toolbars is very bad aesthetically and from a space efficiency point of view. I've not seen any changes to improve this layout since KDE4 screenshots started coming out, so I'm wondering if anything is planned yet?

I like the idea of toolbars of different heights existing simultaneously, this is not possible with KDE3. You could save a lot of space by stacking 2 thin toolbars alongside a thick one.

Of course I would turn off the text under icons anyway ;) If I had to have text then text to the right is a lot better and saves more space in my opinion. Gwenview defaults to a mix of these two styles quite nicely with the text only on the less obvious icons.

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Debian User on Thursday 22/Mar/2007, @16:33

Compliment for your well done comments. I esp. like the fading stuff. Now that you said I noticed that my Kicker does it. It's really very intuitive in meaning. That's great usability.

Yours, Kay

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Ellipsis vs. fading
by StormReaver on Friday 23/Mar/2007, @05:35

I truly hope fading of text is NOT used (or an option is provided to revert to ellipsis). The fading text on the task bar makes it look like my monitor is smudged in multiple places.

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Christopher on Saturday 24/Mar/2007, @07:05

>> 2) Dolphin: The Usability Team should take a look at the interaction of the
>> Bookmark panel and the main panel(s) to the right. When I saw "Home"
>> highlighted purple in the bookmark, I expected the contents of the Home Folder
>> to be displayed, instead of Home/dl/temp.

What about the overall placement of the bookmarks? They seem to be wasting quite a bit of space in their own panel; why not move them up in to the main taskbar next to the view change options, or in with the information tab like in Windows Explorer?

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Re: User Interface Suggestions
by Andy on Sunday 25/Mar/2007, @17:21

Browser sidebars are ugly usability wise

Bookmarks should be in the main window or tab, same goes for history

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