> Spencer said:
>
> I see a downside to this approach: In the other approach, where the user
> clicks on the label to edit it, "special" edit modes like for the
> password or the onion address can be triggered by this click on the
> label. I think with this approach we would need additional buttons for
> those options. The icons you use for this look really nice, but I'm not
> sure if they are self-explanatory enough - I prefer buttons with text.
Buttons / icons with text work best in testing. And not just a little better but overwhelmingly better. Text localizes better too, especially in the case of icons, which are often not universally meaningful.
I would like to see the edit icon turn into a Save icon while the field is editable in the design Segfault showed. Not more buttons, but a button swap.
I don't think ESC will be a good only choice for canceling an edit. Not enough people know about it. It's a hidden control for non-programmers.
A dialog would be a way to avoid both of these action-visibility issues.
I also wonder if it would be safer to save one or two configurations so that people can use different ones as they wish without having to reenter them, and so that a known-working config could be returned to if the experimental new config does not work.
On the downside, you then might have a text file somewhere with a history event you don't want.
Maybe this is just impossible because of the way Tails works?
A temp file then maybe for the session?
Do you have to write HTML to make a welcome message, or does the system just tag it for you? That displayed incomplete text with markup seems distracting without being informative enough.
Lunar said:
> It's unclear to me what happens if a user click on the “Cancel” button.
> Will the settings still be saved somewhere?
>
> Is there another label than “Cancel” that could describe the action
> better? “Edit again”?
"Save" or "Don't Save" often work well together. Would "Don't Save" be accurate?
Particular labels are better than generics (OK/Cancel/Submit). I think Cancel the Edit is what "Cancel" means here, but it wouldn't hurt to be more specific.
> In case you go on with such a confirmation dialog, would it make sense
> to have the option to review changes that are going to be performed?
It's a great idea to review changed configs before applying when more than one thing is saved.
Preventing errors and allowing people to recover from errors easily are the principles to keep in mind, whatever mechanism may be used. When the consequences of failure are severe you need even more prevention and more cure. Anything that helps people recover from a non-working state would be good here.
"Are You Sure?" is helpful to get people to pause and then know _when_ it is they are committing.
"Change config to XYZ?" is helpful to get people to know _what_ it is they are committing to.
Neither of those helps people recover if their first choice does not work.
Layering:
I agree that "Advanced" may be problematic, but I think it's good to layer deep, seldom-needed knobs and levers sometimes just to get them out of the UI for most people, who can easily become overwhelmed and scared away by seeing lots of choices that they don't understand. Maybe some kind of "More Options" label would be helpful to use for this purpose.
Layering can also provide more room for explanations, which helps people learn and make more confident decisions.
Layering can be as simple as show/hide drawer or something like that, so the user has control of it. I agree that UIs should help people learn when they want to know more.
Susan
