unity-design team mailing list archive

[Remco <remco47@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 15:47, Remco <remco47@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 15:04, Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Furthermore, one of the things I currently like the most in the Me
>> Menu is the fact that the text box receives focus automatically
>> when you click on the Me Menu icon. That wouldn't fit your proposal
>> as it would immediately delete the explanation text. A possible
>> adaptation would be deleting it only when the user starts typing,
>> but I have some doubts whether it can be made obvious enough that
>> the text is temporary and not "solid".

I've changed my mind: this is not a problem! So what if the text box
has focus automatically? That's a hidden feature. The text goes away
if you click on the box, but also when you just start typing after
opening the menu. These features co-exist. Explanatory text in a text
box seems to be obvious to users, as it pops up all over the web and
in Firefox, too.

The rationale behind its intuitiveness is that the text box is
supposed to contain editable text. So, the first thing you'd try to do
when you encounter greyed out text in a text box, is to select the
text. At that point, the text disappears, and you've learned that
greyed text in a text box is a description.

-- 
Remco