[wp-design] Checkbox styling

[khaled Abou Alfa]

I've got to say I'm with Joen on this one as well. What can I say the wirey
bastard has me beat in that he can (and has) talked the talk. Although I can
see where Matt is coming from, trying to get it one step ahead of everything
else, I've got to say that it's more important to make WP more solid from
every aspect first before trying and enhancing it in this sort of way. While
cool to look at I don't think it'll really enhance my use of the program,
and at worse it will render it a bit less fun/frustrating for the lesser
communter literate.

One thing I'd like to talk about is the size of the fonts and whatnot that
the current frozen set is going for. This could be in the options but I
think we should keep the text and links size as we've displayed them in the
actual mock up and then have an option to increase everything. That's
definitely an option I think we should be considering because people with
good eye sight shouldn't be subjected to their dad's IE just because their
dad uses IE.

Thoughts?

On 11/18/05, Joen Asmussen <joen at noscope.com> wrote:
>
> Well well well.
>
> There's the issue of Jakob Nielsen being right, and the issue of actual
> usability. The first one is quickly done, so let's do that:
>
> Useit.com <http://Useit.com> is no great example of Jakobs preachings, and
> this is certainly not helping him. I'm not going to discuss useit.com<http://useit.com>,
> for that same reason. But I do want to discuss the contents, because Jakob
> is not "either right or wrong": he's shelling out advice, nothing more.
>
> In other wordsm JN doesn't say "stick to plain ui widgets or die"... he
> says "if you stick to plain UI widgets, you'll have this and that benefit,
> if you don't, be aware that it has the following problems... etc. etc.". All
> based on research mind you. So let's steer the discussion away from JN, if
> we can.
>
> Now, on topic. Pros and cons of using non-standard UI widgets:
>
> *Pros
>
> * *We can possibly get a more consistent feel with the rest of the design.
> This is not a given, it's a possibility.
>
> *Cons*
>
> * We lose web AND operating system consistency.
> People learn MacOSX and Windows, and they learn how a push button looks
> and behaves. Same for scrollbars, checkboxes, radio buttons and so on.
> If we style these, even just a tiny bit, they have to learn them anew.
> On the other hand, if we choose NOT to style them, they will KNOW what
> they do, and what their exact behaviour is, without having to learn a thing.
> This lets them focus on Wordpress, and not cocky designers.
>
> To quote JN: "The more users' expectations prove right, the more they will
> feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And the more
> the system breaks users' expectations, the more they will feel insecure.
> Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a tomato and jump a
> mile into the sky."
>
> * In my experience, which is 7 years now, I've had a single and painful
> revelation: design on the web means much less than I want it to, as a
> designer. Google. Google's copycats. Enough said.
>
> * Michael, the web is not a computer game. In computer games it is the
> norm to customize all interface assets, a fact that I will not challenge:
> the audience for a violent game is different from the audience of Wordpress.
> I mean no offense, I'm trying to be funny in a contextual sort of way.
>
> * It would be ironic for Wordpress to promote web standards, when they
> would merely be treated like bullshit bingo. Web standards also encompass
> web DESIGN standards. Is anyone here going to argue that standard UI widgets
> are not web standards? I'd have a hard time not laughing if we wrote "Web
> standards compliant", and still styled our widgets.
>
>
> In my truthfully honest opinion, styling checkboxes, push buttons,
> scrollbars, dropdown box etc. is an excrutiatingly bad decision, and I can't
> spend more time warning you people now :)
>
> I hope you don't think i'm some kind of old blue links ogre... I'm really
> trying to do this for the best of Wordpress.
>
> Joen
>
>
> Michael Heilemann wrote:
>
> Alright, that's it. I'm going to challenge you both on this and try it
> out. I understand where the idea is coming from, but I really think it's
> one of those rulse that can be bent when done properly.
>
> And I've said this before, but I have to say it again: Have you SEEN
> Jakob's site? And he's preaching usability?! I just don't understand how he
> ever became the high king of usability when he doesn't practice what he
> preaches.
>
>
>
> On 11/18/05, Chris Davis <chrisdmitri at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > And I of course agree with Joen about this.
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Aloha,
> Michael Heilemann
> http://binarybonsai.com
>
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