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

[Martin Graesslin]

On Saturday 25 May 2013 09:43:26 Daniel Nicoletti wrote:
> 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/s1
> 600/device-2012-05-09-152937.png
Both I don't get what is on and what is off. Especially the second one is 
problematic as I don't know whether it's on right now or whether I have to 
drag the switch over to turn it on. The first one shows me that something is on 
but I wouldn't get that it is a switch. It looks like an indicator.
> 
> 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
This one would work for me as long as both sides are shown. If I would just 
have the disabled or the enabled state without the other one I would fail as 
well.
> > 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.
You know what I just did? I went through my flat and looked at all switches to 
see whether I have any of them. Almost all switches do not indicate whether 
they are in an on or off state. The state is mostly indicated by some other 
indicator (e.g. a LED). I found only two switches which also indicate the 
on/off state. One of them is [1], which is quite clear, but wouldn't work in 
software. The other one is similar to the typical touch switches, but both 
possible states are labeled, so I get how it is meant to be used. But a switch 
like the one in typical touch world doesn't exist at least in my flat.
> 
> In print-manager for instance I make the text and icon disabled trying to
> improve the poor situation.
do you have a screenshot? I bet I will fail again.

Cheers
Martin
[1] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mechanischer_Schalter.jpg