[TriLUG] really bad GUI design

[ilan volow]

> 
> although it's not in anaconda, a perfect example of really bad GUI
> design is rebuilding a kernel when you run "make xconfig".
> 
> if you ultimately choose to "Quit Without Saving" (which, i should
> point out, uses too many upper case letters :-), you get the dialog
> 
> 	Changes will be lost.  Are you sure?
> 
> 		OK	Cancel
> 
> i'm not sure a dialog gets more confusingly worded than that,
> particularly the "Cancel" choice, which might lead someone to
> think, "cancel?  cancel what?  the exit?  saving the changes?"
> 
> just being pedantic.
> 
> rday
> 

Rob, you don't know the meaning of the word pedantic ;)

On the back of the August 2001 issue of Linux Magazine, there's a Red Hat ad with a gnome warning dialog displayed. The message of the dialog was "Hello! Nothing is wrong. I just haven't interacted with you in a while, so I thought I'd say hello. How's the family? Seen any good movies lately? Want to hear about my latest file transfer?" 

There were three buttons to choose from in the dialog's action area to choose from.

[Yes] [No] [Cancel]

I kinda chuckled at this one. I hope they were kidding. I've seen way too much of this being done in Windows. 

Seriously, there are two problems with the M$/GNOME/KDE [Ok][Cancel] paradigm

1. The words "Ok" and "Cancel" often don't adequately describe the consequences of clicking on the buttons, as you've pointed out. 

2. Look at the western culture we live in:

BOOK: 
To go back in a book, you go to the left. To progress in the book, you go right. 

SCREWS: 
To take screw out and undo your screwing (heh), turn screw to the left. To go ahead and sink the screw in, turn screw to the right.

CLOCK: 
Hand moves to the left, you go back in time. Hand moves to the right, you go ahead in time. 

CAR: 
Pedal on the left stops the car from going, pedal on the right makes car go forward.

WEB BROWSER: 
Click on left arrow to go back, click on right arrow to go forward.

ad infinitum/nauseum

Now for the $10,000 question, what's wrong with this arrangement of buttons?

[Ok][Cancel]


--Ilan