Re: [PATCH] opie-multikey: Rename config dialog buttons to be more clear

Hello Erik,

Friday, January 12, 2007, 1:46:05 AM, you wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 11, 2007 at 11:42:24PM +0200, Paul Sokolovsky wrote:
>> Hello opie-devel,
>> 
>> opie-multikey: Rename buttons to add/remove custom keymap to be more clear.
>> * opie-multikey needs usability improvements at all - it may take a user
>> some effort to figure out that to change language layout, one needs to call
>> config (which lives on a key marked as shift), select language, and tap
>> OK at window top. Most people would tap "Add" and present with file selection
>> dialog with unknown to them purpose. So, at lease name buttons "Add custom..."
>> and "Remove custom", to correspond to their functions.

> I am on the fence on this one. If someone got a keymap from a feed and
> didn't customize it but used this interface to install it, it would
> really mean much to them that it says custom.

  Don't recourse to your guru experiences, put yourself in the shoes
of novice who booted OPIE on his PocketPC first time. Novice won't rush
to install something from feeds (be cause he has no idea what they are).
But if his native language is not English, he's for sure proceed to
investigate if that thing is at least barely usable by supporting his
language.

  And he will be quite confused to see Ok-Cancel type dialog, where
"Add" (intuitively treatable like "OK"), instead opens another funky
dialog, and "Delete", which doesn't actually delete anything.

  So, logic behind using that wording for buttons was:

1. "Add" really should hint that it doesn't finish interaction,
instead calls another subinteraction - common "..." suffix. So, "Add..."
2. But what about "Delete"? It will work only on additionally
installed keymaps, so there must be some additional word to hint it
has limit scope. "Delete custom" sounds good, IMHO. But other easy to
get and unambiguous word, works, of course (in this case, something
installed from feeds is still pretty custom comparing to standard,
builtin keymaps which go with multikeys itself).
3. Then "Add..." just made to be symmetric and consistent with it. And
every user who doesn't have experience with OPIE, but has experience
with GUIs (and everyone has ;-) ), will get the hint - "You add something
non-standard - you will be able to delete it later. Sorry guys, use other
buttons for standard stuff".

> Do you feel strongly about this one?

  Sorry for long ramble above, but that's how it feels. And yep, I'm
pretty novice OPIE users too, so it's all vivid ;-)

>  I would rather see the up arrow on
> the mulitkey graphic change to something that looks like a way to
> configure it. Do you have a graphic that has a different image then the
> up arrow? I am not sure what you can put there that is both small and
> descriptive. It might be better to suck it up and put another key below
> the keyboard that says 'config'.

  Well, screen estate is precious, and we cannot afford whole another
button below. But solution must be still simple - again that nice
"..." which unambiguously hint - something interesting will popup
there. I'll look into implementing it, but I'd really like more
clear button labels too, based on the above.


  Final usability improvement I envision for multikeys is multi-layout
support. Like, you select few layouts from the list, and then can
cycle thru them we're special key. That's how it works on desktop,
that's how it works in wince. So, the way it's now in OPIE, it's
simply PITA - no wince user will convert, they will just laugh at ;-).
Of course, that will take more time to implement.

(Oh, BTW, I told, I'm novice. Maybe *there's* multi-layout support.
Please hint me. But it really should have more clear configuration
then either ;-) ).

> E




-- 
Best regards,
 Paul                            mailto:[email protected]

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