Switches around the world and broken metaphors [Was: Battery Monitor revamp]

[Daniel Nicoletti]

2013/5/25 Martin Graesslin <mgraesslin at kde.org>:
> And I would completely fail to use the switch. I have huge problems
> understanding those switches and I have not seen any implementation of the
> switch where I got which one is on and which one is off.

You are totally right, because they need fixing, even if they are only to
be used in Plasma Active.
Here are a few examples of how a good switch should look like (IMO):
http://developer.android.com/design/media/settings_master_on_off_2.png
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AXi56wp5zVE/T6pAZj-MXdI/AAAAAAAAACM/-wT0w1PpcJ4/s1600/device-2012-05-09-152937.png

This is the one I like the most (it's the one on my Xperia phone):
http://i582.photobucket.com/albums/ss269/netbookc/XB1/XperiaSICSFirmware_12.png


> These switches are very useful in certain parts of the world (e.g. US) where
> every light switch is like that. It was quite an epiphany to me when I visited
> the US last year - I finally got what these switches are supposed to be. For me
> this switch is just a not working metaphor as we don't have switches like that
> in this part of the world [1].
>
> Just something to remember when it comes to metaphors. They might be awesome
> for some, but if one doesn't understand it, it makes it much more difficult.

I don't think Switches are only about metaphors, actually here in Brazil we also
don't have those, but look at some China toy, or some table clock and you
will see them, so what it misses is how does it present it's states.

In print-manager for instance I make the text and icon disabled trying to
improve the poor situation.

Cheers,
--
Daniel Nicoletti

KDE Developer - http://dantti.wordpress.com