[Bf-funboard] editbuttons layout update / Panel Highlighting

[Thorsten Wilms]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 06:22:39PM +1000, Matt Ebb wrote:
> ...
> > > http://www.shadeless.dk/editbuttons2_vertical_othercollapse_nolines.jpg
> >
> > Much better! Less is more.
> 
> I disagree - particularly the way the panels system is being implemented,
> it's very useful to clearly show what belongs to what panel. The panels can
> be dragged around, collapsed, manipulated, docket with other panels, etc.
> it's very flexible and it's important to be able to visualise these sorts of
> things so people know where the headers are, where to drag, where to drop,
> etc.

I find this thin lines very distracting. There must be a better way.
How about highlighting the extents of the panel on mouseover? It 
would give an extra notion of the panel beeing manipulatable _and_ 
cut down on visual clutter.

> > And the arrowheads for collapsing panels ...
> > it looks like it could be for some dropdown menu as well.
> >
> > It represents state. The problem is, it could mean the
> > current state or the state to change to.
> > Maybe you could come with a simple icon that refers to the
> > _action_ of collapsing/expanding.
> 
> The disclosure triangle was chosen because it is a standard control used in
> a number of operating systems, for exactly this purpose -
> expanding/collapsing areas. Here's an excerpt from Apple's (older OS8) UI
> guidlines regarding them:
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-24.html , and
> a less in-depth description from the OSX UI guidelines:
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AquaHIGuidelines/AHIGControls/index.html .

So Apple users will know what the disclosure triangle means, but most 
Windows users will not. I still think an icon refering to the action 
could be an improvement. But then again, the triangle is simple.


---
Thorsten