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

[Frederic Gurr <frederic.gurr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Thanks for the clarification.

With regards to buttons for actions on trees or tables, the consistency
is my biggest problem. Some buttons have icons, some don't. That would
look odd IMO.

Dialogs vs editors/views:
As an example, I've looked at the dependencies tab in the pom.xml editor
provided by the M2E plugin. It has the following buttons: "Add...",
"Remove", "Properties...", "Manage...". Again, I think it would look odd
if the Add and Remove buttons had an icon and the others didn't. The
other (maybe less obvious) issue is consistency across _all_
trees/tables (dialogs, editors/views).

So in conclusion: Nope, same opinion. I would advise against icons on
buttons in general (while I'm used to see them in the Git staging view
all the time). ;)


Regards,

Fred

On 26.09.19 11:23, Becker, Matthias wrote:
> Thank you for the input.
> 
> To make my point clear once again:
> I do *NOT* propose to put icons on *any* buttons (like "OK", "Cancel", etc.)
> I really talk about buttons that perform actions on a tree or table. Typical action are "Add", "Remove", "Up" and "Down".
> 
> And I would like to know if you have a different opinion if that tree or table is on a dialog (like the preference dialog) or in a editor (like plugin xml editor) or an view (like the Interactive Rebase view)?
> 
> Regards,
> Matthias
> 
> On 25.09.19, 17:46, "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,
>     
>     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
>     >     > 
>     >     >  
>     >     > 
>     >     >  
>     >     > 
>     >     >  
>     >     > 
>     >     >  
>     >     > 
>     >     > 
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>     >     > 
>     >     
>     >     -- 
>     >     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
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>     > 
>     
>     -- 
>     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
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>     https://www.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cross-project-issues-dev
> 
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-- 
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