Martin Schmidkunz wrote:
The light switches vs. fire alarm buttons is an excellent example. If you look closely at the fire alarms you will also notice that putting a red frame around the button is not sufficient to protect it from misuses: usually it is hidden behind glass and you have an additional explanation message. Which can be taken as a proof, that different semantics have to be explained to the user.
The "light switches vs. fire alarm buttons" is rather a philosophical case :) Imagine that fire alarm buttons looked the same as light switches but had a red frame around. Then, what are the light switches good for? You very often need to press them in an absolute dark just to turn the light on. In an absolute dark, you wouldn't see a red frame around an alarm button and you might think it is a light switch. That could cause a harm or/and a damage by starting a fire alarm instead of turning the light on. An explanatory message is not the most important part. The most important is that it is different to a common light switches and that it attracts your attention. 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 ;) Lukas -- Lukas Ocilka, YaST Developer (xn--luk-gla45d) ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX, s. r. o., Lihovarska 1060/12, Praha 9, Czech Republic