A couple of simple ergonomic adjustments

Chris Muller asqueaker at gmail.com
Mon Jul 16 00:39:17 UTC 2007


To be truly "minimalist" we should just go back to what 3.8 did; don't
ever display the corner grips.  The hand already changes to indicate
you can resize, so aren't the corner grips a redundant indicator?
And if someone wants to restore the ability to resize from the sides
(a la 3.8) then what would be the display indicator consistent with
the corner-grips?

And yet, with 3.9, we now have NO indication that "something can
happen here" when the mouse is over the close-X, window menu, maximize
or minimize icons.  Again, 3.8 had it totally right.




On 7/12/07, Romain Robbes <romain.robbes at lu.unisi.ch> wrote:
> To continue on this minimalist trend:
> I changed one method so that the resizing corner grips are invisible until
> the mouse hovers on them. This makes the windows look less busy.
>
>
>     Romain
>
>
> On 7/9/07, Sebastian Sastre <ssastre at seaswork.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hi there,
> >
> >     I wanted to share a couple of simple and cheap customizations I've
> made on my daily Squeak image that I feel improves (phisical) ergonomy. I
> suggest those guys that make that customized images take a look and ofcourse
> the official Squeak to see if, triviality aside, this is cool enough.
> >
> >     To install, 1) evaluate in a workspace the code in Preferences.text
> attached file and 2) install the ListItemColorPreferences.1.cs changeset
> file.
> >
> >     The changeset with 2 method modifications that make the lists use the
> preferences instead of harcoded colors for highlighting. The preferences
> code is in the other attached file.
> >
> >     Criteria was: minimalism, a better Fitts law score and better
> contrast.
> >
> >     Minimalism. No splitter handlers and pollute the windows with scrolls
> only when rigorously necessary.
> >     Fitts. Make the scrolls wider to reduce the time aiming the pointer
> device (mouse or whatever) before the click.
> >     Contrast. Take care on contrast making it better for items selected in
> a list.
> >
> >     I encourage to use better contrast for highlighting in selected list
> items. Try to read from 1 meter of the screen with the default red over
> lightgray (low contrast) and then customize it to a better contrasted
> version. I liked the readability of cyan over dark blue but is so different
> from the main theme that I choosed a not that radical one (like the one I've
> put in the preferences file).
> >
> >     As developers parsing the low contrast symbols hundred of times a day
> ofen for hours at that low contrast can wastely "raise the temp of our
> graphic cards", this is, unecessary visual stress.
> >
> >     Who knows.. everything to save a couple of headaches :)
> >
> >     all the best,
> >
> >
> >
> > Sebastian Sastre
> >
> > PD: when I had some more time for this I plan to make a preference of
> opening menues and submenues with a click (like it is now) or only with a
> mouse over. This can save hundreds of clicks a week and so the clicker
> finger join.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>



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