[Sugar-devel] [Design] ColorButton

[Eduardo H. Silva]

2009/9/12 Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>:
> On 12 Sep 2009, at 16:34, Eduardo H. Silva wrote:
>
>> 2009/9/11 Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>:
>>>
>>> On 11 Sep 2009, at 00:30, Eduardo H. Silva wrote:
>>>
>>>> Should the toolbar icon for the colors palette have a down arrow like
>>>> with the other toolbar button icons? After all, it doesn't execute a
>>>> primary action of its pallete when clicking, instead it reveals its
>>>> palette.
>>>
>>> No, down arrows indicate the new lockable secondary toolbars (one click
>>> to
>>> lock open, one click to lock closed, hover for temporary quick use like a
>>> palette). Locking open secondary toolbars resizes the activity canvas
>>> area,
>>> normal toolbar palettes do not.
>>>
>>> FWIW: it has been agreed (I think) that any icons that have _NO_ default
>>> primary function (i.e. they just hold palettes) should instantly, and
>>> fully
>>> expose on a single left click (as they already do for a single right
>>> click).
>>> As their primary function is to display their palette. Maybe we can solve
>>> this for 0.88. This would solve things like providing instant feedback on
>>> buddy icons, such as accessing the large self buddy icon in the home view
>>> for getting to settings, shutdown etc.
>>
>> But shouldn't something be done visually to differentiate those icons
>> which open palettes when clicked, from those which act their primary
>> action? The user won't know beforehand what will the result of
>> clicking be otherwise.
>
>
> Yes, I do acknowledge this point, unfortunately all the visual 'cures' I've
> seen mentioned or tried to think up so far are worse than the 'illness'. The
> Sugar UI usage of icons with a primary action vs. no primary action would
> seem to be about 50/50, so any visual treatment would have to look good on
> ~50% of all icons you see. For the new toolbar lock open/closed 'v' shape,
> it requires almost all those icons to be re-adjusted/designed from scratch
> with that extra empty space required below.
>
> I guess I'd try to argue for better icon design to start with, so that the
> author made sure they clearly distinguished icons for single click actions,
> from icons exposing a palette of actions.

Good point. The color button in Write is a good example of that.

> Could I ask you indicate some example cases where you see potential
> confusion? Perhaps we can improve their icon designs.

To be honest I don't have a use case to show, perhaps it's just a
potential problem that doesn't manifest itself.

Eduardo
> Regards,
> --Gary
>
>