activity configuration UI

[Sebastian Kügler]

On Wednesday, March 28, 2012 14:06:29 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > one further thing i'd like to experiment with is moving the save/close
> > buttons into the title bar. some other mobile OSes do this and it would
> > accomplish two things: better use of screen real estate, make it more
> > obvious to people where these buttons are. people often do not find the
> > buttons at the bottom; i've watched dozens of people go through the UI
> > and this is a recurring issue.

> This brings us back to the issue Fania and me raised before: Do we really
> need  ok/cancel buttons in all dialogs? We still think we don't. And
> completely eliminating the buttons by instantly applying changes wherever
> possible and closing the dialog with a tap outside is better than moving
> the unnecessary buttons elsewhere.

I tend to think we don't. Apply can be done in multiple ways:

- instantly: works well for single-action widgets, such as radio buttons, 
  buttons, sliders, togglebuttons, ...
- apply after timeout: works well where the executed action is heavier (search 
  a list from a textfield)
- selecting an item from a list if only a single selection is possible

it doesn't work where you are making multiple adjustments to an object until 
you're happy, in that case you want to apply / save your settings and dismiss 
the dialog, here you'll need a button. An example here would be the time 
picker dialog, or -- indeed -- Activity Settings =)

The general rule should be to not use Apply buttons, and for dialogs, dismiss 
them when clicked outside. (This is btw also how the Harmattan components 
work, and I think it leads to smooth workflows.) Note that dismissing the 
dialog means that settings are *not* applied / changed, so in some cases, 
we'll still need Apply/Save/OK/whatever.

Does this make sense?
-- 
sebas

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