Re: Druid Validation

[Phil Muldoon <pmuldoon at redhat dot com>]

On Fri, 2006-03-24 at 10:51 -0500, Andrew Cagney wrote:
> >  
> >
> I think this is something that really should be determined by the 
> desktop [GNOME] and not on a per application basis.   If there isn't 
> consistency then it could either be due to flux or a lack of clear 
> guidelines.   As an example of flux, I'm pretty sure that OS-X was once 
> using Dialog based validation but as new apps come out they are 
> switching more to Hot Validation (true?).

Yes, true. I did not find any specific stuff in the HIG so I thought I
would ask my peers ;) Though I suppose one could draw from the
overreaching philosophies from the general Usability Principles. It
really is an excellent document. 


> >1) Hot Validation. The Next button is disabled (grayed) until all
> >information is correct and entered on that page. When correct
> >information is entered and completed, the Next button becomes enabled.
> >Edit any information to make it incorrect or incomplete, and the Next
> >button will move from an enabled state to a disabled state. Concerns
> >about this are: confusion regarding what information is correct if the
> >only prompt you receive is a disabled/enabled button. What does the
> >druid want?
> >
> >  
> >
> Yes, sometimes frustrating when trying to figure out why that damd next 
> box is still disabled, but more direct in feedback - you're not finished 
> here :-)

Yes, I remember (I think it was the web tools wizard) when I was just
totally puzzled as to what they wanted from me. No hints, nothing
obvious, just a gray "Next" button. Well it turned out that I mis-
configured something in a previous page, and that had not populated a
control properly on the current page. Still the experience stayed with
me ;)


Regards

Phil