Skip to main content

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [List Home]
Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Text and / or Icons on Buttons / Toolbar Items

Thank you for the input.

To make my point clear once again:
I do *NOT* propose to put icons on *any* buttons (like "OK", "Cancel", etc.)
I really talk about buttons that perform actions on a tree or table. Typical action are "Add", "Remove", "Up" and "Down".

And I would like to know if you have a different opinion if that tree or table is on a dialog (like the preference dialog) or in a editor (like plugin xml editor) or an view (like the Interactive Rebase view)?

Regards,
Matthias

On 25.09.19, 17:46, "cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Frederic Gurr" <cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of frederic.gurr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

    Hi,
    
    As mentioned, icons are fine in other places, like EGit views (Git
    Staging, Rebase Interactive). To a certain degree this is pure
    habituation though. If I had never seen icons on the "Commit and
    Push..." and "Commit" buttons, I probably wouldn't miss them either.
    
    Regards,
    
    Fred
    
    On 25.09.19 17:20, Becker, Matthias wrote:
    > Hi Frederic,
    > 
    > you said you never missed buttong on dialogs. Would you opinion be different for editors of views?
    > 
    > Regards,
    > Matthias
    > 
    > On 25.09.19, 12:35, "cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Frederic Gurr" <cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of frederic.gurr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
    > 
    >     Hi,
    >     
    >     I have never missed icons on buttons in the preferences dialog or
    >     similar dialogs (e.g. run configurations, etc). For me, they would not
    >     add any value. Buttons would need to be wider or taller to be able to
    >     fit in the icons, which would take away valuable screen area in a lot of
    >     already crowded dialogs.
    >     
    >     I did not dig too deep, but I could not find any dialog with buttons
    >     that have icons (I'm happy to be proven wrong ;) ). So I assume that
    >     this is the default UI/UX convention for buttons in dialogs. Someone
    >     else probably knows if it's an actual rule or only a common practice. In
    >     any case, I like the consistency of it. Having icons only on a few
    >     buttons would feel incomplete, especially since plugins can contribute
    >     dialogs.
    >     
    >     More of a general problem (but it would multiply with a rule to add
    >     icons to buttons): icons should be taken from the same icon set or have
    >     at least the same style and it's going to be hard to find unique icons
    >     for some of the buttons (e.g. "Use system font", "Go to default", etc).
    >     
    >     There are a lot of other places in the Eclipse IDE UI where Icons a
    >     perfectly fine, but not in dialogs, IMHO.
    >     
    >     Regards,
    >     
    >     Fred
    >     
    >     On 25.09.19 11:45, Becker, Matthias wrote:
    >     > Dear Eclipse experts,
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > today I had a discussion with co-workers and I also want your feedback
    >     > on that topic.
    >     > 
    >     > It’s about Text and/or Icons on (Standard) Buttons:
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > Today we see a lot of dialogs in Eclipse where we have buttons that only
    >     > have text but no icons.
    >     > 
    >     > On example is Platforms “Available Update Sites” preference page.
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > There we have Add, Remove, Edit, … on the right hand side of the table.
    >     > 
    >     > Btw: Should the “Edit” button not be “Edit…”?
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > Also JDT’s “Change Method Signature” refactoring dialog has a similar
    >     > pattern:
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > In contrast to that let’s have a look at the “Rebase Interactive” view
    >     > from EGIT:
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > Here we also have buttons. But they all have icons and in addition they
    >     > have text below the icons. I find the UI design of the interactive
    >     > rebase view really good. The “first time users” (that maybe
    >     > 
    >     > don’t know the meaning of some icons) can directly read the text (and
    >     > don’t need to hover with the mouse) and will (maybe) learn the icons.
    >     > In addition there’s a context menu and we have key binding for the
    >     > various actions.
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > Let’s have a look at an additional location of icons and text. The
    >     > perspective switcher:
    >     > 
    >     > Here we also have Icons and text (but not on the right hand side) by
    >     > default but the “power user” can switch the text off.
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > What’s the reason for not having icons on the other locations? The Add,
    >     > Remove, Up, Down and Edit buttons could also get icons (that already
    >     > either already exist in Eclipse or are known by “everybody” from every
    >     > day’s life).
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > Regards,
    >     > 
    >     > Matthias
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     >  
    >     > 
    >     > 
    >     > _______________________________________________
    >     > cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
    >     > cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
    >     > To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
    >     > https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
    >     > 
    >     
    >     -- 
    >     Frederic Gurr
    >     Release Engineer | Eclipse Foundation Europe GmbH
    >     
    >     Annastr. 46, D-64673 Zwingenberg
    >     Handelsregister: Darmstadt HRB 92821
    >     Managing Directors: Ralph Mueller, Mike Milinkovich, Gaël Blondelle
    >     _______________________________________________
    >     cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
    >     cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
    >     To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
    >     https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
    > 
    > _______________________________________________
    > cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
    > cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
    > To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
    > https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
    > 
    
    -- 
    Frederic Gurr
    Release Engineer | Eclipse Foundation Europe GmbH
    
    Annastr. 46, D-64673 Zwingenberg
    Handelsregister: Darmstadt HRB 92821
    Managing Directors: Ralph Mueller, Mike Milinkovich, Gaël Blondelle
    _______________________________________________
    cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
    cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
    To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
    https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev


Back to the top