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From: brownw@atc.boeing.com (William J Brown)
Subject: Re: Interface design question
Message-ID: <DIv8r9.K5F@grace.rt.cs.boeing.com>
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Reply-To: brownw@atc.boeing.com
Organization: Boeing Computer Services
References: <DIt73E.3qD@ranger.daytonoh.attgis.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 17:04:20 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.smalltalk:31323 comp.human-factors:15878 comp.graphics.misc:4184

In article <95Nov28.233413est.205321@twist.db.toronto.edu>, golovch@db.toronto.edu (Gene Golovchinsky) writes:
> ian@ican.mlnet.com (Ian upright) writes:
> 
> >We are trying to settle a difference of opinion about GUI interface
> >design.  Suppose that the object below is a self-contained window that
> >represents a graph.  Each 'x' represents a plotted point that you can
> >click on and drag to move it around in the graph.  Right-clicking
> >anywhere within the window brings up a popup menu of options to do
> >things like add a point or edit
> >attributes of the graph.
> 
> >    100 !-----------------!
> >        !               _/!
> >        !   #         _/  !      A Graph of Y versus X 
> >        !           _x    !      showing 3 plotted points.
> >    Y   !         _/      !
> >        !        /        !      The in-between dashes represent 
> >        !       x         !      a line connecting the points.
> >        !     _/          !      
> >        !   _/            !      The background of the graph is white
> >        !  /              !      The area outside the window is gray
> >        ! x               !      The points and the line are black
> >        !/                !      The frame of the window is black
> >      0 !-----------------!
> >        0                10
> >                    X
> 
> >If you were to double-click at the position of the '#' on the white
> >graph background what would you expect to happen?
> 
> >  a) add point
> >  b) nothing
> >  c) open a dialog box
> 
> This depends on what this is for! What does the graph mean to the
> user? Does it make sense to add points to this, or is it a display
> of some observations? Does the line represent an interpolation
> or is it also part of the data? If you can define the task, I think
> the answer to your question (and probably to other questions) will
> be more obvious. At this point, I think "all of the above" or perhaps
> "none of the above" is as good as answer as you can get.
> 
> >Sorry if this isn't the right place to post this question but we were
> >unsure
> >what newsgroup would be appropriate.
> 
> I posted this to comp.human-factors
> 
>  2
> G
> -- 
> Gene Golovchinsky (mailto:golovch@ie.utoronto.ca)
> http://anarch.ie.utoronto.ca/people/golovch/
> (Mechanical and) Industrial Engineering
> University of Toronto

In article <DIt73E.3qD@ranger.daytonoh.attgis.com>, Elizabeth Muncher <elizabeth.a.muncher@DaytonOH.ATTGIS.com> writes:
> My first reaction to your question was none of the above.  I 
> would expect to get a window with the table of data points.
> 

I agree with both of these. I have a hard time understanding under
what conditions someone would want to arbitrarily add points to a
graph. The graph should be based on data compiled somewhere else and
adding data sounds, well, dishonest.

I would expect dialog boxes to appear in response to selections from
a pull-down menu (with ellipsis).

A double click seems like it ought to result in something. What would be
the least surprising thing to happen? A table of data points would be
surprising, but at least it's a pleasant surprise.

-- 
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William Brown (206) 865-4618        	| Internet: brownw@espresso.rt.cs.boeing.com
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