Checklist Configuration Dialogs

From KDE-HIG_Wiki

For reference, see Practical Examples - Configuration Dialogs


For reviewers: Please report bugs to bugs.kde.org for the given application. In the title, please use the prefix "HIG <nr of rule>:", e.g. "HIG CL1/1.1:" when a an application does not make use of a paged configuration dialog.

Please also link the bugs you reported on this wiki page (http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Checklist+1%3A+Configuration+Dialogs).


For developers: There will be bugs you can fix easily yourself (e.g. dialog navigation, size of dialog, etc.). If you have problems with the "grouping" criteria, please contact kde-usability-devel.


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Checklist

1. Dialog navigation

  • CL1/1.1 A paged configuration dialog (http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Image:Grouping.png) should be used when there is more than one category of options.
  • CL1/1.2 Tabs should be used as second-level navigation.
  • CL1/1.3 Tree views shouldn't be used in the paged dialog's sidebar.


2. Grouping of options

  • CL1/2.1 The number of categories (pages) should be between 3 and 6.
  • CL1/2.2 The number of tabs on a page should be between 2 and 4.
  • CL1/2.3 The options should be in the visible space so the user doesn't need to scroll. (otherwise it's an indicator that options might be moved to advanced sections or dialogs)
  • CL1/2.4 There shouldn't be "orphaned options" - options which are not related to any other ones.


3. Dialog layout

  • CL1/3.1 The dialog should be resizable. (the latter is important for accessibility)
  • CL1/3.2 The dialog shouldn't resize itself when you switch to another page or tab.
  • CL1/3.3 The overall size of the dialog shouldn't be bigger than 800x600.
  • CL1/3.4 The dialog should have scrollbars which appear when not all options are visible.


4. Wording

  • CL1/4.1 Keywords used in page title and the label in the left navigation bar should correspond.

(In this example (http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Image:Grouping.png), page title is "Here you can personalize kopete"” while the label is "Behavior". This should be reported and acceptable change would be Behavior -> "Here you can change the behavior of Kopete" OR Personalize -> "Here you can personalize Kopete")

  • CL1/4.2 Obviously technical or otherwise hard to understand wording should be avoided.


5. Undoing Changes

  • CL1/5.1 There should be options to reset the defaults.
  • CL1/5.2 There should be a clear indicator if only the current page/tab or all defaults are reset.
  • CL1/5.3 There should be a menu button that offers both options (http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Image:Defaults.png), "Default [page title]" and "Default All Settings".
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