User Interface Answers
User Interface Answers
- Subject: User Interface Answers
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 00:01:47 EST
To all who been following some of the user interface questions we have asked
on this list...
I spoke recently with John Geleynse, User Interface Evangelist at Apple
Computer, about some of the recent questions we have talked about on this
list. John said he would write a longer letter in near future explaining some
of the issues, but in short term, I should pass on some of his answers. He
also mentioned people should look at the User Experience website:
http://developer.apple.com/ue/ as well as re-reading the current User
Interface Guidelines (UIG - the Bible for user interface issues).
1) Close button on a Single window application: John was surprised when we
could not find this explained in the current UIG and promised it would be in
the next rev. A Close button should quit a single window
application/utility. End of argument. System Preferences should, but does not
follow this rule. He wanted to be sure everyone understood this was only if
the application had a single main window, and no document or utility windows.
By the way, I was cheering for a different UI answer, but I lost on this one.
2) Use of Metal: Again, according to UIG, textured windows or "metal" should
only be use for "applications that provide an interface for a digital
peripheral, such as a camera, or an interface for managing data shared with
digital peripherals, such as the Address Book application." Only the main
window should be metal, not document windows or preference ones.
3) Use of borders: I was reminded that the aqua guidelines (the ones that
Interface builder supports) need only followed for modal and modeless dialog
windows. The dialogs contain buttons with outside edges and shadows that must
be given border space. Document windows can arrange the views anyway they
wish, though it is recommended that any spaces between views be an even
number of pixels. It is recommended for document that contain Large views,
like text and browser views, that the views should go to the edge of the
window (no borders). Document windows that mix text & browser views with
buttons will require some border. There is no guidelines to how thick these
borders need be.
4) Toolbar Icons: I asked about toolbars and use of toolbar icons. Since
Apple provided the standard Printer toolbar item (including artwork), and
several Apple apps (noticeably Mail) have other toolbar icons for standard
actions, we could have a library of standard toolbar item art. John
mentioned that the UIG specifically states that toolbar items for common
commands that have keyboard shortcuts (i.e. Cut, copy, paste, undo, new,
open) should NOT have toolbar items. Thus a standard artwork for these
commands would be against UIG. I said it made a lot of sense to have a
"standard" toolbar item art for command like "Connect" & "Disconnect", since
so many different Internet applications have this command. He agreed there
was some common ground, and asked if I could create a list, with the Cocoa
List members help, of commonly used Toolbar items. He made no promises that
Apple would provide art, but would look into the issue.
So, I hope this helps some of the arguments we have been having, and that I
did not misunderstand John's explanation. For the near term, I will be
compiling a list between now and MacWorld of common Toolbar commands/artwork
that we, as developers, could use:
My list of asked for Toolbar item as it stands (with help from several
people):
Address
Attach
Back
Bigger
Burn
Colors
Computer
Connect
Customize Toolbar
Delete
Disconnect
Eject
Favorites
Find
Flag
Fonts
Forward
Get Info
Help
Home
iDisk
Junk
Make Plain Text
Make Rich Text
New
New Document
New Folder
Path
Preferences
Save As
Save As Draft
Save As Text
Send
Smaller
Trash
See you at MacWorld!
Steve Sheets
Midnight Mage Software
email@hidden
email@hidden
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