[kde-guidelines] Styleguide: Placement

[Heiko Tietze]

Am 09.01.2014 15:01:14, schrieb Thomas Pfeiffer:
> > http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG/Placement
> 
> Not sure if people would look for size guidelines under "Placement". Maybe we 
> should rename it to "Sizing and Placement"?

 The link itself is set for "size and space"....
> > * If the control appears in a dialog or utility window, consider making the
> > window and the control within it resizeable so that the user can choose how
> > many items are visible at a time without scrolling. Each time the user
> > opens this dialog, set its dimensions to those that the user last resized
> > it to. 
> 
> Not sure if "making the window and the control within it resizeable" might 
> lead people to think that controls generally should be resized along with 
> windows, which not all of them should.
> In fact, we might have to provide guidelines about which controls should be 
> resized when the window resizes and which should not.

Agreed. But I have no idea how to discriminate bith except the modeless stuff as discussed below.
 > > * Size controls with a minimum of
> > ** Icon: 16x16px
> > ** Buttons:  75 x 23px
> > ** Edits, Drop-downs: ≥80 x 23 px
> > ** Text boxes: ≥80 x ≥39 px (text should not exceed 80 characters per line)
> > ** Check box, Radio button including label: ≥80 x 19 px
> > ** Group boxes: ≥120 x ≥90 px
> > ** Tree view: ≥120 x ≥90 px
> > ** List view: ≥80 px (per column) x ≥90
> > * Make sure your application works with at least 640x480px, which is the
> > minimum for KDE SC. 
> 
> Is 640x480 really still the relevant minimum size for desktop applications? 
> Trying to cram everything into a 640x480 window might even lead to sub-optimal 
> design for today's desktop/laptop screens...

All values are my best guess, or rather any guess. In general I believe designers should discuss the guidelines in this section. But it seems to me that KDE has only a few pixel pushers for icons, if at all. ;-)
 
> > * Modal dialogs must not be resized.
> 
> Why must modal dialogs in general not be resized? Not all modal dialiogs are 
> strictly question and answer. The File open/save dialogs are modal, and they 
> definitely _should_ be resizeable.

First. the difference between modeless and modal forms has a major impact on usage but is nowhere indicated in the UI.  This could be improved by this rule. Furthermore, modal dialogs are usually intended to get closed quickly - just yes or no, next step etc. Nothing that makes an elaborated interaction necessary. Why should such a form be resized? I have to admit that your file dialog argument is valid. To keep my line of arguments I'd say the file dialog is poorly designed if it needs resizing by users.



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