[OTR-dev] Pidgin plugin development and GUI look

[Ian Goldberg]

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 12:25:11PM +0200, hcat at gmx.net wrote:
> > Except that that expander is part of the notebook pane; 
> > there are separate instructions for each authentication 
> > option.
> 
> Another thing which I did not notice right away!
> 
> Ok, let's restart this. The main problem of the dialog as I see it is that the workflow is backward or upside-down :)
> 
> Dialogs should work from top to bottom. In this case, if you want to change the auth method, you have to use the last control first, which then changes the (hidden) help text and the input fields above that. The last thing you actually do is input secret and/or question at the top of the dialog.
> 
> I have redesigned the whole dialog to work around these problems:
> 
> http://userp.uni-koblenz.de/~monreal/tmp/otr/otr-mock-4.png

I like the concept, but have a few questions about the details.

> - The "Authenticate <user>" line stays but "again" appended to show
> that you already authenticated the user once (instead of the string
> that was shown below... is this enough?)

I don't think it's enough. The appearance of "again" is *way* too
subtle, I think.

> - Below the line the first part of the help text is drawn. This is
> short and catchy and guides the user through the dialog, so I don't
> need the use of hiding it first. Also, this place is definitely better
> than below the input fields.

The rest of the help text is now entirely absent, including the link to
the web-based help pages.

> - Next I put the auth method selection, as a combo box instead of a
> radio. IMHO this is easier to the eyes and takes away less space.
> Again, no real need to hide this by default IMHO.

I'm just worried about putting so much text into a combo box.
Especially in some other languages, this would make the box really,
really wide, no?

> - The next parts will change if the combo selection changes.
> 
> - Following is the second part of the help text. This is drawn using a slightly smaller italic font. We do the same in the preferences menu of Banshee btw.
> 
> - Last, we have the actual input boxes for the secrets/questions etc.
> 
> - I also changed the "OK" button to read "Send Request", as the HIG
> discourages the use of generic button labels like "OK"; instead the
> button should always say what it does.

I don't think "Send request" is the right thing to say here, though.
The word "request" appears nowhere else in the dialog.

   - Ian