First I want to make clear that my problem is not a technical question. I want to talk about usability.
In my company we have a function to check if a scale works properly. We have the button you see bellow (1) to start a function named scaleCheck(). During the scale check the weight of the scale is set to 0 and then a specified weight is put on the scale automatically and when the weight matches the number set in a config file the scale is OK. So when you click on the button, it gets the white border (2) and when the check is finished the button turns normal again (3).
This is the automatic process, but not every customer has a scale which can put automatically a weight on it. So in this case the customer has to go to the scale an put a weight on it by his own. In our application the customer can configure, if he wants the process to be manual or automatic and the button will adjust to this. So when the configuration is set on manual we have to interrupt our function an wait for the customer until he is ready. Because we don't know how many time he will need, he has to click on the button again to tell the application that the process can continue. Therefore we changed the button a bit when we are in manual mode. As you can see below the button (1) changes the image, when the customer clicks the first time on it (2), to show that the weight has to be put on the scale. When he clicks the second time the process proceeds (3).
So this is the current state. The automatic mode works how the customers imagine it to be, but in the manual mode many people have problems with it and need a lot of time the recognize that they have to click on the same button again they clicked before.
And here is my question, is there a better way to show the customers that this button should be clicked again. Are there some people who have experiences with a similar kind of functionality? Or is there a better way to do it? I'm open for every idea which comes in.
We ended up with the opinion that it is not a intuitive solution to click twice on the button. We solved it by showing the user a message after the first click on the button, and accepting that message is count as the second click. With usability in mind this i by far a better solution and the customers can handle this situation much better.
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I'm creating my own version of a wizard form using Asp.Net Webforms.
The form contains multiple steps and each step contains multiple input fields of varying types. Data is validated after each step is completed before moving onto the next step.
In addition to moving forward, each completed section also has an Edit facility.
I was hoping to have 2 buttons available in Edit mode - one to Continue and re-validate and another to Cancel and forget everything.
However, it seems that isn't so easy.
The continue button works exactly as the Continue button in add mode - in fact it's the same button - so no issues there.
But there is an issue with the Cancel button.
Suppose a user enters edit mode and changes their name from 'John' to 'Jon'. They could press Continue to accept and revalidate. however, if they were to press Cancel, they would expect so see the original spelling of 'John' restored.
This doesn't happen automatically.
So, as I currently see it, I have two options. The easy option - remove the Cancel button (and potential confusion) - or the hard option, to code a backup and restore solution in edit mode, which is likely to be a pain as it will need to cover all input types.
However, I'm hoping there's a third option available - one that offers some kind of built in functionality to help manage this problem.
So that's the question - is there any other solution aside from the two options I've already outlined?
Lets say, you have an image button at the UI that represents a switchable feature (i.e. tooltips on/off). What should it show according to the status (on/off). I believe, the user is expecting to see a hint for what is going to happen, when he click the button. In this case, the button displays just the opposite of the current status. For example: the two images are lightbulbs, one grey for OFF, one yellow for ON. Now, if the feature status is OFF, the button shows the yellow one, signaling that, if you click on it, the feature will be switched to ON, and vice versa. A colleague said, that this is misleading. If the feature is OFF the button should reflect this, thus displaying a grey lightbulb. I couldn't find any best practice rules for that. Anybody knows some?
I want to create an interactive website using aspx and ajax, that there will be an option to create chess game room for example and other players will be able to join.
I have 2 Questions:
I wonder if you have any idea how can I make that after one player clicks on a button and finish his turn, the other player will be able to do a move.
After the first player finish his turn I will change the turn by using the database, but the point is how can I refresh the other player's site so when the other one finish his turn, the turn will come to the second player?
When someone creates a room and than close his browser - I need that room to be closed.
Shall I use the Session_OnEnd to close the room he opened?
Thanks!
I wonder if you have any idea how can
I make that after one player clicks on
a button and finish his turn, the
other player will be able to do a
move.
There are a lot of ways you can do this. If it was me I would have a "moves" database table or something and track whos move it is in there. Then on the page have SetInterval() javascript method that uses an ajax service to look in that "moves" table and determine when it is the users turn.
When someone creates a room and than
close his browser - I need that room
to be closed. Shall I use the
Session_OnEnd to close the room he
opened?
You can use Session_OnEnd. As an alternative you could use the ajax method that checks the moves table to see when a user hasn't checked in x minutes, then close their session.
The simplest way is probably to do a simple heartbeat/polling on each client to see if it is his/her turn yet. Although, push/comet has been getting easier and easier these days.
If you're already using a polling/heartbeat technique, it would be trivial to close a session after, say, 5 missed heartbeats.
Just wanting to know if anybody has seen an example of a telnet/chat or other console like FLEX application where you can use the same TextArea as input/ouput area.
I've been trying to modify the app at:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/17_Networking_and_communications_8.html
but so far, computer says no.
All the implementations I've seen use a combination of TextInput and TextArea.
The challenge is that we'll be using this app to telnet into some old routers and we'll need to do a fair amount of copy/pasting. Based on what I've seen, it seems that I would need to point the mouse into the TextInput in order to be able to right click and paste, which is not very sleak.....
Your thoughts,
Fran
edit Just realized that I had trimmed out what was directly pertaining to the question: I was unable to find anything that used the TextArea for input and output; see the below suggestions if custom-component suggestions are ok.
The TextArea component only fires a change event whenever a user adds input. Whenever you set the text field programmatically, a change event does not fire--you could maybe use that as a way to know what is user input and console "responses" by looking for carriage-returns (\r).
I'm unsure if you have a requirement to maintain the user's input at the bottom-most line (like a console), even after the console responds with something like auto-complete. If that's the case, then something a bit more complex would have to come into play (such as remembering where the user's input started/ended) or the requirement of a single-component console needs to be reconsidered--sleek is nice, but not always necessary.
I want to create a combobox in flex which will take three values, Available, Unavailable, and Busy. The constraint is, I should not allow user to go directly from Unavailable to Busy. So when a User is selected Unavailable, I should keep the Busy item disabled (unselectable), but a user will be able to go directly from Available to Busy. I chouldn't find a straight forward way to disable an item in combobox in Flex. How can I do that?
Have you considered using radio buttons rather than a combo box? It's clear how to do this for radio buttons, for one thing. Also, it can often be friendlier to present the available options without requiring a click to reveal them. (Especially if, as in this case, you are adding the possibility that an option is "available, but not possible for you right now for some reason not shown in this combo-box item").
If you really want a combo-box, you can use the click event to display it in a non-standard fashion by probably changing its style; and then, if clicked anyway, Then, in the selected event, reject the choice (hopefully with an indication of why),
Or, if you want to simply remove it from the list, you can have the click listener event repopulate the source list each time, based on conditions. But that might be confusing to the user, too.
You can also have a look at
www.stoimen.com/blog/2009/03/05/flex-3-combobox-disabled-options/
which references
wmcai.blog.163.com/blog/static/4802420088945053961/
(note for NoScript users you must have 163.com and 126.com at least temporarily allowed to be
able to properly see this page)
it works very well even though I added the code for being able to properly handle keyboard
events in the dropdown list
Full self working example available at
http://olivierbourdon.homedns.org/OpenSource/combos.zip
Thanks again for the good work