svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) (09/13/89)
Since we are talking about Alerts and such, we had an interesting idea come up at recent tech meeting that I thought I would throw out and see if anyone had any thoughts (pro or con or whatever) about it. The concept is something I am calling 'User-Chosen Alerts'. What this means is that each non-error related alert, such as the Save Changes, or Do you want to Quit?, etc., have two new buttons. One would read, 'No, and don't bother me again' and the other 'Yes, and don't bother me again'. What these would do would be to basically setup a 'preference' of a sort where there would now be a default setting for the alert, and rather than it coming up each time it would have, it now has a default choice that is handled transparently. This way you could setup for a auto-save on close, or a never save on close, for example. So what do you think?? Good idea, bad idea??? I know the interface and user interaction parts need work, and suggestions are gratefully accepted, but I think the concept has merit and maybe we can come up with some new standard for this new concept in alerts... -- +--------------------------------------------------+ Leonard Rosenthol | GEnie : MACgician Lazerware, inc. | MacNet: MACgician UUCP: svc@well.UUCP | ALink : D0025
d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon W{tte) (09/14/89)
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ! ! ! You are about to exit this program, NextGenerationApplicationForTheMac ! ! ! ! You have made changes to one of the socuments you were working with, ! ! namely the document that you read as Turbo:Documents:Text:MyMemo ! ! ! ! If you quit this application now, you will loose these changes. ! ! ! ! Please chose one of the following, easily identified, actions to take, ! ! or press return to perform the default action, which in this case is ! ! to save changes made and exit this program. ! ! ! ! Further options may be available when depressing various modifier ! ! keys, and then may or may not be visible, according to the phase of ! ! the moon and whether you are using a mouse-mat or not. ! ! ! ! ! ! Save changes, and by the way, always do so without asking ! ! ! ! Discard changes, and by the way, never save when quitting ! ! ! ! Call Tech Support using the modem and the number stored in HyperCard ! ! ! ! Wait until I decide what I REALLY want to do with my life ! ! ! ! Save changes made and then exit the program ! ! ! ! Save changes made, but don't exit the program ! ! ! ! Don't save changes made, but exit the program and loose the changes ! ! ! ! Don't save changes made, but don't exit the program either ! ! ! ! ! ! NetWare Inc. takes no responsibility for the consequences, express or ! ! implied, from choosing any of the above stated choises or lack thereof ! ! ! +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ It's lucky we have 15" screens these days... -- The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
zben@umd5.umd.edu (Ben Cranston) (09/14/89)
In article <13586@well.UUCP> svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) writes: > The concept is something I am calling 'User-Chosen Alerts'. What this means > is that each non-error related alert, such as the Save Changes, or Do you > want to Quit?, etc., have two new buttons. One would read, 'No, and don't > bother me again' and the other 'Yes, and don't bother me again'. What these > would do would be to basically setup a 'preference' of a sort where there > would now be a default setting for the alert, and rather than it coming up > each time it would have, it now has a default choice that is handled > transparently. This way you could setup for a auto-save on close, or a > never save on close, for example. I find this scary on two counts. One, the user may not be fully aware of all the conditions under which a given alert may be given, and thus setup a default she does not want. For example, suppose an application can save two different document types (say a Palette and a Picture). Is it obvious that setting "Save Changes" to "default yes" for Palettes also changes it for Pictures? Two, there is no obviously easy way to rescind the setting. Wouldn't it be more user-friendly to have a "Set Defaults..." menu with nice radio buttons or something? -- Sig DS.L ('ZBen') ; Ben Cranston <zben@Trantor.UMD.EDU> * Computer Science Center Network Infrastructures Group * University of Maryland at College Park
chaffee@reed.UUCP (Alex Chaffee) (09/17/89)
In article <5311@umd5.umd.edu> zben@umd5.umd.edu (Ben Cranston) writes: >In article <13586@well.UUCP> svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) writes: > >> The concept is something I am calling 'User-Chosen Alerts'. What this means >> is that each non-error related alert, such as the Save Changes, or Do you >> want to Quit?, etc., have two new buttons. One would read, 'No, and don't >> bother me again' and the other 'Yes, and don't bother me again'. Good concept, bad implementation... >Wouldn't it be more user-friendly to have a "Set Defaults..." menu with nice >radio buttons or something? > >Sig DS.L ('ZBen') ; Ben Cranston <zben@Trantor.UMD.EDU> >* Computer Science Center Network Infrastructures Group >* University of Maryland at College Park Exactly! -- The single easiest trap to fall into with the Mac UI -- and one of the most annoying for me as a user -- is, for example, making everything a button. Or making everything a hierarchical menu... Don't forget about check boxes, radio buttons, scroll bars, pop-up menus... and, of course, custom controls... not to mention intelligent design of menu options... Speaking to the issue at hand, I like the idea of an auto-save (though I have been burned more than once by LSC's auto-save), but am really opposed to an auto-don't-save. Think about it: what if you're trying to (say) select text near the upper left window and you accidentally point too far and click the close box... Suddenly, the window and all of your work is gone forever. Slightly more acceptable would be defining command-close to mean "close without save" -- but then we're into the realm of obscure, non-standard interfaces, which the Mac is supposed to have put behind us all... Disclaimer: I'm unemployed; I can say what I want. -- Alex Chaffee chaffee@reed.UUCP ____________________