Re: Interface/usability question
Re: Interface/usability question
- Subject: Re: Interface/usability question
- From: Jon Hull <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 03:57:23 -0800
On Thursday, November 14, 2002, at 07:13 AM, Chilton Webb wrote:
Howdy,
I have a checkbox in my app's preferences that is giving me
philosophical problems.
The button denotes the visibility (or invisibility) of a particular
object in a window when the window is first opened. The object it
refers to will be invisible by default, but that's my preference, and
doesn't have to be that way. And of course, I wouldn't offer the
checkbox in the prefs if I thought I was always right ;-)
My question is, if there's no 'right or wrong' way the object should
be by default, and I decide to make it invisible because it cuts down
on screen real estate or some other moral high ground, should I mark
the button as 'Visible', and have it unchecked, or 'Invisible', and
have it checked?
The general rule is that the checkbox should always be labeled in the
positive sense. That means that it is better if you have the button
labeled "Visible" and unchecked. Better yet, the label should refer to
the item in question (i.e. "Show Toolbar") using words like
"Show"/"Hide" rather than "Visible"/"Invisible".
The best solution, of course, is to design your interface so that you
avoid the problem altogether. If I knew more about you product then I
could give you better advise. But let me say that in general, it is
undesirable to have things which are sometimes visible, and other times
not. You may want to ask yourself who your users are, and whether they
would really find the object useful or not... decide, and then loose
the preference.
There are always exceptions of course. Hope this helped.
Thanks,
Jon
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