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katachi 06-21-2006 12:48 AM

UI modification request
 
I'm not sure whether this is the appropriate place to request this but...

May I suggest that the UI for the schedule pane be modified slightly?

I'd like to see the "buttons" for selecting weeks/days changed to either:

A) simple checkboxes — I know this doesn't look as cool as the buttons, but it seems infinitely clearer to the user about what is an "on" state and an "off" state. While I love the OS X UI, I still can't really tell if "dark button = on" or "dark button = off". I think a more physical indication would be better than a visual one.

B) color-coded buttons — perhaps "green button= on", "red button = off" (or "light gray button = off"). While I personally like it, there are two problems: 1) users who are red/green color blind, and 2) these colors don't always communicate the same ideas in other cultures (case in point: here in Japan, green and blue are often called the same thing and carry identical meanings).

dnanian 06-21-2006 08:09 AM

Thanks for the suggestions, katachi. The general idea isn't "dark" vs "light", but rather "depressed" vs "up"... and we do show you what you've done just below, in the "What's going to happen" section.

But, I'll be revisiting all of these design decisions again for the next major release: thanks for your feedback.

katachi 06-21-2006 12:10 PM

Thanks for the reply, Dave.

I kind of gathered that you were going for a "depressed" vs "up" ("on" vs "off") -- just like a push-button. The widgets throw me because the "depressed" state is graphically exactly the same as the "up" state, but just a darker color. :o

For a "depressed" state, I guess my eye is looking for a shadow where the button would sink below its neighboring button, or the faceplace of the console. Instead, however, the highlight of the light reflection is still there — kind of like those buttons on television production control boards, or airplane dashboards where you push the button, and it "lights up" but doesn't necessarily change position.

Sorry, I know I'm being incredibly picky here. :( I totally understand what you mean and what you were going for. It's just that more than once, I found myself thinking "okay, so does this click mean I've turned this day 'on' or 'off'?".

Honestly, and please, no offense, I never even look at the "What going to happen" section. I think it's a great idea for users who are new to backup — the ones who are thinking "oh crap, what exactly will happen if press the 'copy now' button?". Unfortunately, for me, it takes 10-15 seconds of reading and translating words into actions to read the "What's going to happen" section to gain the same information as a quick 1-2 second glance at the buttons. Perhaps I've got ADD, but there are simply too many words — the names of my scheduled jobs are rather long and detailed (full sentences themselves), and the names of my disks are all lowercase, so I find myself re-reading the sentences because I can't at first glance tell the variable information (job and disk names) from the static information ("...will be copied to..."). Everything ends up looking like incorrect sentence grammar. ("Shouldn't there be a 'your' before the word 'backup'?"..."Oh, wait, 'backup' is the name of my disk."..."So, wait, that means..." :confused: ).

Please forgive me, I know I'm nitpicking again. I just wanted you to know how one user is interacting with things.

Keep up the good work, Dave!! :)

dnanian 06-21-2006 12:52 PM

Understood, Katachi. Perhaps Apple will be redesigning these widgets to be more distinct, or we can do alternate textures in the future.

Thanks for all the feedback!


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