Projects/Usability/HIG/Dialogs: Difference between revisions

From KDE TechBase
< Projects‎ | Usability‎ | HIG
(HIG moved to community)
 
(7 intermediate revisions by one other user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
== Guidelines ==
{{ Moved To Community | KDE_Visual_Design_Group/HIG/Dialogs }}
=== Positioning ===
* Always keep dialogs on top of their parent.
::{|
| [[Image:DialogPositionParentBad.png]]
| {{BadUsability}}
|-
| [[Image:DialogsPositioningParentGood.png]]
| {{GoodUsability}}
|}
::This is usually taken care of by the window manager. But in composed applications, focus problems may occur. Check carefully in this case.
* If reference in the parent window is required, make sure your dialog does not cover relevant parts. <br><small>For example a find dialog should neither be centered, nor cover a search result.</small>
 
=== Interaction ===
* Set input focus on confirmation button.
 
=== Reduce the dialog flood ===
* Do not nest dialogs more than two levels deep. <br><small>For example "Configuration dialog > Advanced dialog" is ok, "Configuration dialog > Advanced dialog > Further settings dialog" is too deep.</small>
* Avoid dialogs that contain only one or two options. If possible, use [[Design_and_Layout:Interaction:Input#Inline Editing|inline-editing]] instead.
* Do not use dialogs to display non-critical messages which do not require any further user interaction (typically dialogs with a single "OK" or "Close" button). Use [[Guidelines:Info Panel|info panels]] instead.
 
=== Modal dialogs ===
* Use modal dialogs only if allowing interaction with other parts of the application while the window is opened could cause data loss or some other serious problem.
* Provide a clear way of leaving the modal dialog, such as a Cancel button.
 
=== Dialog Layout ===
 
* Dialogs should not be bigger than 800x600 pixels and should always be resizable
* Make sure there is at least one third white space, do not overload the panel.
* The reading direction in dialogs is left to right, top to bottom.
* Dialogs are grouped in meaningful sections. The actions are grouped along their context of use, not along technical relations.
* Each section has a title.
* Labels are right-aligned, input widgets are left aligned.
* Provide one or two major vertical axis in your dialog that guide the user's attention.<br>The vertical line where the right aligned labels and the left aligned input widgets meet is one such example.
* Widgets which are subordinate to another widget are indented. If their enabled state depends on the parent widget, create an appropriate slot.
 
Otherwise, follow the guidelines described in [[Projects/Usability/HIG/Form_Label_Alignment|Form: Label Alignment]]
 
== Implementation ==
* [http://api.kde.org/4.10-api/kdelibs-apidocs/kdeui/html/classKDialog.html KDialog]
 
== See Also ==
* [[Projects/Usability/HIG/Tabs_Pages|Tabs and Pages in Dialogs]]
* [[Projects/Usability/HIG/Form_Label_Alignment|Form: Label Alignment]]

Latest revision as of 11:26, 4 August 2016

This page is now on the community wiki.