Re: Internally described edit-boxes

On Tuesday 14 July 2009 01:03:08 Ralph Müller-Welt wrote:

> In my opinion space saving is an important issue.
> Especially when it comes to mobile devces like PDAs, etc.

What is the resolution of PDA? 800x600 -- I use hires screen 
(1920x1200, WUXGA) and I am not very comfortable using UI layout 
which is optimized for around 25% of the space I have. 

Don't get me wrong -- PDA user needs are valid ones, but we should not 
make the UI such way, the hires screen users are punished because PDA 
exists. 

Even I am tired of straining my eyes to read the shadowed text, and of 
seeing text coming and going. And what about older or handicapped 
users?

Such "animations" are normal among games, but with apps, the overall 
feeling should be more solid. No tricks.

> When user uses it, he already knows what it does.

PDA, no PDA, this is wrong UI. UI should be self-explanatory. User 
should see it and understand what it does.

Correct: oh, this is search.
Wrong: hmm, what it does? let's try it.

> When user emptys it and clicks somewhere else description comes
> back.
>
> I think thats all one needs to know and see.

Nope. 

User should get full set of possibilities, clearly named. User should 
not strain his/her eyes to decipher the label.

User should see UI which fits __his/her__ environment, not Joe the 
neighbor.

Besides -- if this is technically possible (it is, I can attach the 
screenshot) you should not limit user ways of learning. Quite 
contrary, the space should be _used_ to improve learning. 

> While mouse hovers over the inputbox a tooltip with
> medium description is shown.
> And imho more important, it shows a tooltip when hovering over the
> X at the end of inputbox!
>
> More possible improvements.
>  - Keep description even when inputbox has focus! And erase
> description on first keypress.

It is all playing games with user. It is tiresome, because it directly 
says "hey, we have some hidden features here, discover them".

User has job to do, she/he should not be forced to play explorer.




OK, let's start from environments:
a) lowres screens
b) hires screens

Probably those two cases (like PDA and WUXGA) are strictly separated, 
meaning, using (a) will never be comfortable in a way (b) is, and 
what's more, (b) can afford "wasting" space for making UI more clear, 
obvious, informative. I would like to emphasis this -- making WUXGA 
experience as _un_comfortable as PDA is not right direction.


Now, about edit-box. Could this be made labeled edit-box with option 
for (a) and (b)? In case of (b) label would be permanent, with normal 
color, and normal rendering (no italic). A lot of space which hires 
screens offers are _not_ used currently (if we save space in case of 
(b) it simply means we show empty space for no benefit at all).

In case of (a) the label would be "folded" inside editbox, and we 
could think how to make life easier for (a) even further (another 
story at this point).

General layout would be exactly the same.

IOW it would means we use available resources wisely (simply depending 
of what is possible in given case). So, what are your remarks about 
such duality.

Cheers,
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