Projects/Usability/HIG/SOU Workspace/Supplemental Information

Sometimes additional Information has to be given to the user to allow him/her to correctly use a widget/form/dialog or to warn of possibly harmful settings.

Guidelines

There are three ways to provide additional information in KDE4:

• Additional Text directly on the interface
• Tooltips
• The "What's this?"-Function (?-Icon)

Additional UI-Text

Use this method if

• most users are likely to need the information to correctly use a widget or a whole dialog/form
• the window in which it is displayed is not used regularly
• or if the user has to be warned of potentially harmful actions before using the widget

• If the note/instruction concerns the entire dialog or form, place it below it's title with at least one text-height of space above and below it. Display an information/warning-icon before the text
• If the note/instruction concerns a group of widgets, place it at the top of the group, but inside it's frame
• If the note/instruction concerns a single widget, place it above the widget. Place it closer to the widget concerned than to the one above to make the connection clear

Supplemental information (in this case a warning) given on a group of options

Tooltips

Use this method if

• many users need the information, but only the first time they are using the dialog/form
• Users are unlikely to be hovering the cursor over the widget unless they are looking for additional information
• The description can be short (no more then 25 words)

The "What's this?"-Function

Use this method if

• only few users are likely to need the information
• or if users are likely to often hover the cursor over a widget, thus making tooltips annoying
• the description would be too long for a tooltip