Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Text and / or Icons on Buttons / Toolbar

[Frederic Gurr <frederic.gurr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

As mentioned, icons are fine in other places, like EGit views (Git
Staging, Rebase Interactive). To a certain degree this is pure
habituation though. If I had never seen icons on the "Commit and
Push..." and "Commit" buttons, I probably wouldn't miss them either.

Regards,

Fred

On 25.09.19 17:20, Becker, Matthias wrote:
> Hi Frederic,
> 
> you said you never missed buttong on dialogs. Would you opinion be different for editors of views?
> 
> Regards,
> Matthias
> 
> On 25.09.19, 12:35, "cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Frederic Gurr" <cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of frederic.gurr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>     Hi,
>     
>     I have never missed icons on buttons in the preferences dialog or
>     similar dialogs (e.g. run configurations, etc). For me, they would not
>     add any value. Buttons would need to be wider or taller to be able to
>     fit in the icons, which would take away valuable screen area in a lot of
>     already crowded dialogs.
>     
>     I did not dig too deep, but I could not find any dialog with buttons
>     that have icons (I'm happy to be proven wrong ;) ). So I assume that
>     this is the default UI/UX convention for buttons in dialogs. Someone
>     else probably knows if it's an actual rule or only a common practice. In
>     any case, I like the consistency of it. Having icons only on a few
>     buttons would feel incomplete, especially since plugins can contribute
>     dialogs.
>     
>     More of a general problem (but it would multiply with a rule to add
>     icons to buttons): icons should be taken from the same icon set or have
>     at least the same style and it's going to be hard to find unique icons
>     for some of the buttons (e.g. "Use system font", "Go to default", etc).
>     
>     There are a lot of other places in the Eclipse IDE UI where Icons a
>     perfectly fine, but not in dialogs, IMHO.
>     
>     Regards,
>     
>     Fred
>     
>     On 25.09.19 11:45, Becker, Matthias wrote:
>     > Dear Eclipse experts,
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > today I had a discussion with co-workers and I also want your feedback
>     > on that topic.
>     > 
>     > It’s about Text and/or Icons on (Standard) Buttons:
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > Today we see a lot of dialogs in Eclipse where we have buttons that only
>     > have text but no icons.
>     > 
>     > On example is Platforms “Available Update Sites” preference page.
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > There we have Add, Remove, Edit, … on the right hand side of the table.
>     > 
>     > Btw: Should the “Edit” button not be “Edit…”?
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > Also JDT’s “Change Method Signature” refactoring dialog has a similar
>     > pattern:
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > In contrast to that let’s have a look at the “Rebase Interactive” view
>     > from EGIT:
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > Here we also have buttons. But they all have icons and in addition they
>     > have text below the icons. I find the UI design of the interactive
>     > rebase view really good. The “first time users” (that maybe
>     > 
>     > don’t know the meaning of some icons) can directly read the text (and
>     > don’t need to hover with the mouse) and will (maybe) learn the icons.
>     > In addition there’s a context menu and we have key binding for the
>     > various actions.
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > Let’s have a look at an additional location of icons and text. The
>     > perspective switcher:
>     > 
>     > Here we also have Icons and text (but not on the right hand side) by
>     > default but the “power user” can switch the text off.
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > What’s the reason for not having icons on the other locations? The Add,
>     > Remove, Up, Down and Edit buttons could also get icons (that already
>     > either already exist in Eclipse or are known by “everybody” from every
>     > day’s life).
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > Regards,
>     > 
>     > Matthias
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     >  
>     > 
>     > 
>     > _______________________________________________
>     > cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
>     > cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
>     > To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
>     > https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
>     > 
>     
>     -- 
>     Frederic Gurr
>     Release Engineer | Eclipse Foundation Europe GmbH
>     
>     Annastr. 46, D-64673 Zwingenberg
>     Handelsregister: Darmstadt HRB 92821
>     Managing Directors: Ralph Mueller, Mike Milinkovich, Gaël Blondelle
>     _______________________________________________
>     cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
>     cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
>     To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
>     https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
> 
> _______________________________________________
> cross-project-issues-dev mailing list
> cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
> To change your delivery options, retrieve your password, or unsubscribe from this list, visit
> https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
> 

-- 
Frederic Gurr
Release Engineer | Eclipse Foundation Europe GmbH

Annastr. 46, D-64673 Zwingenberg
Handelsregister: Darmstadt HRB 92821
Managing Directors: Ralph Mueller, Mike Milinkovich, Gaël Blondelle