Re: [Usability] Ellipsis on buttons


--- Shaun McCance <shaunm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 2006-03-23 at 14:50 +0000, Alan Horkan
wrote:

Developers should be slapped for not properly
labelling things.
(Reading documentation to find out what things do
should be an option not
a necessity.)


Oh, come now. We use iconography for all sorts of
purposes
in our interfaces. Should drop-down menus remove
their arrows
in favor of a "Select" label? Should disclosure
triangles be
removed in favor of "Open/close group" buttons?

This need to label everything gives us bulky and
cumbersome
interfaces. One reason Mac interfaces often feel
slick and
efficient is that Apple isn't afraid to use their
icons.

I'm taking a wander through some of the dialogs on my
mac...
The non-labelled buttons I see are:

Little round '?' for help in dialogs
+ and - to add and remove items in a list (eg list of
printers)
An button with an icon representing a user (silhouette
bust), to choose a person from the address book to
whom faxes should be emailed
Colour choosers
The lock icon at the bottom of system preferences
requiring admin password (but that has text alongside
it that explains it)

By and large, where the user needs to choose
something, there's a list rather than a button that
summons another dialog. The user chooser and color
choosers are the exceptions.



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