Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

I think the next-generation hardware will be powerful enough to run desktop software, but the new UI seems to be continuing the demand that software has to be "ported" and "hildonized" to the new UI.

I strongly believe the best UI is one that can scale gracefully to handle various levels of complexity without breaking. But the other school of thought says that the more complex apps should squeeze themselves through the keyhole of the UI if they want to run under that UI. Desktop UIs tend to follow the first paradigm, mobile UIs tend to follow the second one.

If you want to know what side of the UI fence you're on, ask yourself, what is wrong with this dialogue box: the label is too big, or the button is misplaced/too small?

http://internettablettalk.com/forums...1&d=1237061656

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

According to OpenOffice.org "Replace" is better than "Find and replace", and HIG (for computer desktops) in general recommend just one word if you don't need strictly 2 or 3. Now what?

Also what is your opinion about my comments about this very same screenshot?

About the text going off the button, as said in the link above I think it's a bug that needs more work to make sure that texts fit always inside buttons no matter what. Can someone file a bug or should I?

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

I think that you are, as always, very diplomatic.

But I think you blame the app more than the UI.

Thanks for taking the initiative in these things. We complain, you file bugs :)

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Too bad it was so quickly marked "RESOLVED WORKSFORME"

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Would it be possible to setup a poll on the whole cancel button thing. I thi k the results could be very telling.

Having read through this thread and the bug report, my admittedly warped mind came to this conclusion:

It would make more sense to me to open up a dialog, perhaps a file chooser and having selected the file I want, click on the background to go back into the program I was working with having choosen my file. Instead of an OK button, there would only be a "Cancel" button to close the dialog if I didn't want to make a choice. It seems to me that in most cases, the background area would be larger than the button area, which would make it better suited to be the default OK choice. The larger area would make it easier to hit. "Cancel" being the non-default choice should be harder to hit otherwise you would get a lot of false "Cancel"s

Just my 0.02 cents

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

They would probably be telling of people being cautious and wary of changes, especially before seeing the big picture and trying the new version out for themselves, but hopefully your implication didn't try to be that the perfect UI could be done by polling internettablettalk users about UI design specifics and following the results. :)

I would have lots to say about 'democratic' design processes and what the end result usually ends up being, but perhaps the short version is that I don't really believe in polling in cases like these.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Also, UI design is not about personal preferences as are expressed in polls, no matter if it's a poll on ITT or a world wide poll among all Nokia customers.

UI design is a trade you learn, much like carpenter and plumber. There are books about it, teaching you pretty boring rules to follow, things you have to do, things you mustn't do, processes for quality control... And there's a well defined set of contradictory aims that you need to know about and that you will need to balance. The rest is experience.

You'll also find that most of the times, the best UI is the one you don't like and wouldn't vote for (if given a choice), because it's more efficient and let's you do you daily tasks much quicker and easier than the nice and friendly one you'd have voted for in a poll.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Well I don't think there is a "best" or "right" UI. It's pretty much very vague and subjective. There are _some_ guidelines and some ways of doing things, just because people are used to some things that have been established. It's not universal and not an exact science.
With the tablets we have the opportunity to invent some truly unique and new UIs because in itself it's a unique and new platform. We don't have to stick with desktop paradigms and things that make sense outside of the tablets.

We don't have all the information to make a democratic poll. If everyone would get the new device and test in real life situations the various proposed UIs for a period of time, only then could we make an informed voting.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

I was probably thinking more along the lines of a generic poll, not specifically related to this. Certainly, a UI designed by majority vote would be horrific and nobody would be happy with it (well maybe 2 people).

I just keep reading things like "no major problems in testing", which lead me to believe that there were "minor" problems, which is to be expected. I just wonder about the definitions of major and minor.

As an example: a group does a study and determines that pedaling a bicycle backwards is more efficient, producing more power and is better exercise. They have data to back this up. A company decides to produce the bicycle. Testers are hired and instructed how the bicycle works. After using the bicycle for a couple of days, the users agree that it seems to be better exercise and more efficient, a very few have trouble getting the hang of it
(minor problems). The bike goes into production and gets sold at Walmart.

I'd bet that even though the change should be for the better and improve bicycles as we know them, most people would end up returning them the next day, since they don't work as expected (pedaling forward). Over time enthusiasts may begin pushing it mainstream, but that could be much further down the road.

I guess it seems that it wouldn't take much more to enable some kind of cancel button, or "x" and make both methods work, to ease backward compatibility and allow users the chance to make the shift.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

The "x" button wouldn't just be for compatibility, it would be for consistency. The notion of "click on any window's close button to get rid of it" is pretty-much universal and it would be a shame to break it. The convention for a close button is "x", or red, or both.

If I have to click outside a dialog box to close it, part of my brain is forever going to be feeling like I've clicked on another window to bring it to the front, and hidden a modeless dialog. It's not an interface that will feel right when I use it. I hope Nokia re-thinks this one.

Regards,
Roger