[kde-guidelines] Placement and alignment of explanations in forms

[Aurélien Gâteau]

Le dimanche 28 juillet 2013 16:21:24 Thomas Pfeiffer a écrit :
> Howdy,
> today when I reviewed a new form in KTp (see
> http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/media/uploaded/files/2013/07/28/steam1.png )
> I noticed that the placement and alignment of the explanation for the Steam
> Guard Code seemed "wrong" to me. It felt like it should be
> a) Aligned with the widget, not the label (or maybe it's aligned with the
> left edge of the form, can't tell that from the screenshot)
> b) Placed below the widget it explains
> I felt like the placement of supplemental text in a form was already covered
> in an HIG, but could not find any, so I think we should add it to the form
> layout HIG.

I Agree.

> Do you think the suggested placement and alignment makes sense, or is above
> the widget and aligned to the label better?
> Placing the text below the widget it explains has the advantage that users
> already know the context when they read the additional information, but the
> disadvantage that they might be confused in the period between seeing the
> widget/label and reading the supplemental text.

I would personally place the explanation label below the line-edit, make it 
word-wrap and use a smaller font (kdelibs provide a way to get a standard 
"Smallest Readable Font" [1]). Something like this ascii art:

<pre>

        Username: [____________________________________]

        Password: [____________________________________]

Steam Guard Code: [____________________________________]
                   The Steam Guard code will be emailed
                   to you after attempting to login

                                       ( OK ) ( Cancel )
</pre>

Aurélien

[1]: http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/kdeui/html/classKGlobalSettings.html#a1af6d9cc0108fca58b002b4c127dc51f