Hello, I'm curious by nature, so does your application already have a website? This is something that I've always felt would be useful.
Regarding your question, I agree with Mathew that the noun-->verb relationship is a bit simpler. If you decide to use the verb-->noun design, I'd recommend hiding the "Theme Name" field until the user actually clicks on "Create a new theme" or "Modify an existing theme." I would try to reduce the amount of unnecessary fields and boxes whenever possible. On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 9:54 PM, Matthew Paul Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi again Dave > > Sorry for the slow reply. > > On Jun 17, 2008, at 3:21 AM, Dave Foster wrote: > >> >> Hi Matthew + Jacob - >> >> Thanks for the advice, some good stuff in here. >> >> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 7:59 PM, Matthew Paul Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> wrote: >> >>> >>> My first thought is: That list of actions doesn't seem to include >>> anything that requires it to be a dialog. Could it be an ordinary window >>> instead? >>> >> >> I guess I just didn't get the difference between the two. I thought a >> dialog was just a window with a pre-defined layout. I'm guessing by your >> reactions there is a bit more? >> > > A dialog is modal to its parent window, and has a row of buttons along the > bottom, most of which close the dialog. Typically, a dialog asks for extra > information on something you specified in the parent window. > <http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/windows-dialog.html.en> > > Instead, try thinking object -> verb: present the list of themes first, >>> with the actions afterwards. Like this: >>> >>> This is much calmer, even while it lets you see the complete list of >>> themes at a glance (which the radio-button-based design wouldn't). >>> >> >> To be honest, it didn't strike me right away, but this could be a pretty >> good way of looking at it. I'll fiddle with it a bit and see what looks >> good. Any other options for laying it out? The buttons at the bottom seem >> a bit.. eh, i don't know how to describe it. >> > > Since this window would now mostly be a listing, the list could go right up > against the top, left, and right edges of the window, like it does for > folders in Nautilus. At the bottom of the window would be a panel in which > the buttons would sit with the standard spacing. Imagine nautilus-cd-burner, > rotated 180 degrees. > > Would it lose anything if they were on the right, arranged vertically? >> > > The main drawback (as you may have discovered by now) is that it would take > up more space -- there would usually be a chunk of empty space in the bottom > right corner. > > Here's what would happen to the previous options: >>> * "Create a new theme" -> "New...", then type its name into the >>> newly-created table row. >>> * "Create a new theme based on an existing theme" -> select theme, >>> then click "Duplicate..." and type the name into the newly-created >>> table row. >>> * "Open an existing theme" -> select theme, then click "Open". >>> * "Edit current theme" -> open window, then click "Edit" (the >>> current theme being selected by default). >>> * "Open last edited theme" -> select theme, then click "Edit...". >>> >> >> I think the "edit" and "open" actions are really the same thing here, so >> they can be combined into a single button. >> > > Great. (I wondered if that was the case, but I don't know what kind of > themes we're discussing.) > > Thinking about the (future) general users of this application, the "new >> from scratch" option is going to be not used very often. I think the >> majority of themers start off by copying something (the duplicate) and then >> tweaking it until it is unrecognizable, so I think the "create based on an >> existing" or "edit existing" are the two most important items on this menu. >> With the "new theme" being so prevalent, I think people will miss the >> functionality of "duplicate" on first glance, until they try it a few times >> and see what happens. >> > > Perhaps label it "Copy as New Theme…". > > I hope I'm being clear above. With this info in mind, does it change >> anything about what you said? >> ... >> > > Not really. That there are fewer buttons makes me happier about the layout. > > Cheers > -- > Matthew Paul Thomas > http://mpt.net.nz/ > > > ---AV & Spam Filtering by M+Guardian - Risk Free Email (TM)--- > > > _______________________________________________ > gtk-app-devel-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-app-devel-list > Natan
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