Hello, On Jun 6 15:21 Lukas Ocilka wrote (shortened):
Imagine that fire alarm buttons looked the same as light switches but had a red frame around.
To avoid misunderstanding: Of course I didn't mean that a red frame is the one and only item which makes fire alarm buttons different from light switches.
The only possible consistency is to have all light switches the same and then all fire alarm buttons also the same type but a completely different to light switches. Then, neither light switches nor fire alarm buttons need to be explained... consistency is self-explanatory ;)
Exactly! Nevertheless a note: I don't think that consistency alone is self-explanatory. In this case there are cultural conventions (i.e. knowledge in the head of the users) which makes the user understand what a fire alarm button is and what a light switch. Watch children who don't know yet about the cultural conventions what they try to do with a fire alarm button (that's one reason why there is additionally a glass). Note that fire alarm buttons and emergency stop buttons look similar (but not identical) but very different from light switches. Somehow fire alarm buttons and emergency stop buttons manage very well to show a clear message about their semantics (i.e. about their meaning behind the plain "I am a button" syntax). Do already solutions or proposals exist how to show semantics for buttons (or whatever else stuff) in GUIs? What about using differnt colors depending on the button semantics? E.g. an [Abort] button may have a red background color because the meaning of Abort is "quit immediately without saving anything"? Another good example how to show semantics/meaning is the mouse cursor of the "xkill" command. Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, 90409 Nuernberg, Germany AG Nuernberg, HRB 16746, GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org