[wp-design] Checkbox styling

[Joen Asmussen]

Well well well.

There's the issue of Jakob Nielsen being right, and the issue of actual 
usability. The first one is quickly done, so let's do that:

Useit.com is no great example of Jakobs preachings, and this is 
certainly not helping him. I'm not going to discuss useit.com, for that 
same reason. But I do want to discuss the contents, because Jakob is not 
"either right or wrong": he's shelling out advice, nothing more.

In other wordsm JN doesn't say "stick to plain ui widgets or die"... he 
says "if you stick to plain UI widgets, you'll have this and that 
benefit, if you don't, be aware that it has the following problems... 
etc. etc.". All based on research mind you. So let's steer the 
discussion away from JN, if we can.

Now, on topic. Pros and cons of using non-standard UI widgets:

*Pros

* *We can possibly get a more consistent feel with the rest of the 
design. This is not a given, it's a possibility.

*Cons*

* We lose web AND operating system consistency.
People learn MacOSX and Windows, and they learn how a push button looks 
and behaves. Same for scrollbars, checkboxes, radio buttons and so on.
If we style these, even just a tiny bit, they have to learn them anew.
On the other hand, if we choose NOT to style them, they will KNOW what 
they do, and what their exact behaviour is, without having to learn a 
thing. This lets them focus on Wordpress, and not cocky designers.

To quote JN: "The more users' expectations prove right, the more they 
will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And 
the more the system breaks users' expectations, the more they will feel 
insecure. Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a 
tomato and jump a mile into the sky."

* In my experience, which is 7 years now, I've had a single and painful 
revelation: design on the web means much less than I want it to, as a 
designer. Google. Google's copycats. Enough said.

* Michael, the web is not a computer game. In computer games it is the 
norm to customize all interface assets, a fact that I will not 
challenge: the audience for a violent game is different from the 
audience of Wordpress. I mean no offense, I'm trying to be funny in a 
contextual sort of way.

* It would be ironic for Wordpress to promote web standards, when they 
would merely be treated like bullshit bingo. Web standards also 
encompass web DESIGN standards. Is anyone here going to argue that 
standard UI widgets are not web standards? I'd have a hard time not 
laughing if we wrote "Web standards compliant", and still styled our 
widgets.


In my truthfully honest opinion, styling checkboxes, push buttons, 
scrollbars, dropdown box etc. is an excrutiatingly bad decision, and I 
can't spend more time warning you people now :)

I hope you don't think i'm some kind of old blue links ogre... I'm 
really trying to do this for the best of Wordpress.

Joen


Michael Heilemann wrote:

> Alright, that's it. I'm going to challenge you both on this and try it 
> out. I understand where the idea is coming from, but I really think 
> it's one of those rulse that can be bent when done properly.
>
> And I've said this before, but I have to say it again: Have you SEEN 
> Jakob's site? And he's preaching usability?! I just don't understand 
> how he ever became the high king of usability when he doesn't practice 
> what he preaches.
>
>
>
> On 11/18/05, *Chris Davis* <chrisdmitri at gmail.com 
> <mailto:chrisdmitri at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     And I of course agree with Joen about this.
>     _______________________________________________
>     wp-design mailing list
>     wp-design at lists.automattic.com <mailto:wp-design at lists.automattic.com>
>     http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-design
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Aloha,
> Michael Heilemann
> http://binarybonsai.com
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>wp-design mailing list
>wp-design at lists.automattic.com
>http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-design
>  
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-design/attachments/20051118/e184fed8/attachment.htm