> Coincidentally, yesterday I was trying to munge Federico's ideas into > the UI Pattern Template I've been working on-- primarily to continue to > exercise the template rather than suggest a concrete design for zoom > controls, so I'm not saying the pattern I came up with is particularly > valid-- I do still show the zoom in terms of percentage, for example. > But just for the record, here's where I got to (some sections incomplete): > <http://live.gnome.org/UsabilityProject/HIG/ImageZoomExamplePattern>
There's some really good stuff on this page. <snip> > I mentioned on IRC yesterday that I think there are actually probably a > couple of different use cases here-- the one where the bounds of the > allowable zooming are practically infinite (e.g. a vector graphics > editor), and one where you could sensibly define them for most use cases </snip> Yes - it'll be useful to distinguish those in the pattern and to suggest different controls accordingly. > In the 'defined bounds' case, I think providing a slider can still be > useful, and I do quite like the way OpenOffice's zoom slider works, with > a couple of 'magnetic' points along the way for 'fit width' and 'fit to > window'. Where the bounds are large, having the slider behave in some > sort of exponential fashion might also be an option, although that would > probably need some tinkering to make it feel right and work well. I'm still not entirely sure about the practical benefits of sliders, but they may have non-practical advantages: they can look nice, and I suspect people like them as something that they can play with. They can be a nice change from the usual kinds of widgets you encounter. Allan -- IRC: aday on irc.gnome.org Blog: http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/ _______________________________________________ usability mailing list usability@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
