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Really petty, but I got to ask
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Arantor

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Really petty, but I got to ask
« on November 28th, 2012, 01:44 AM »
So, here's me reworking the admin panel. Many of you will be familiar with the checkboxes that are used to indicate on/off status, which is fine. This is how SMF does it.

Some of you will be aware that Aeva and the integration of it into Wedge do something slightly different; they use a dropdown with yes/no in them.

A few of you might be aware how IPB and MyBB do things - any yes/no option is done with two radio buttons. If you're not, I've attached a picture of how IPB does it. MyBB's is similar but uglier.

On top of that, a fourth option occurs to me - using something similar to how iOS does it - effectively a slider with two states, on/off, where it is not merely differently coloured but also differently shaped (the widget is on the other side of the slider, though in practical use it is not a slider but simply a button that looks like a slider)

I'm curious - which would be easiest for you to use?

📎 ipb_yesno.png - 1.86 kB, 130x42, viewed 257 times.

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spoogs

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Stick a fork in it SMF

Asgard

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billy2

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Farjo

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #4, on November 28th, 2012, 10:12 AM »
"MyBB's is similar but uglier." :lol:

Checkboxes or radios for me - sliders seem to confuse me for some reason.

Nao

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #5, on November 28th, 2012, 11:03 AM »
I don't like the slider, but that's just me. The other day I switched my iPod to English and realized that sliders have "ON" and "OFF" text in them. In the French version, there is simply no text (probably because we French are too stupid to figure out what the words ON and OFF mean, even though we've been seeing them in real life for the last hundred years on anything with a switch!)

Anyway... I like the IPB version. What mattered to me in the AeMe rewrite, was to have a clear visual clue of whether it was Yes or No. As you can see, the dropdown (at least in the Wedge version) already shows a green Yes and a red No. I guess it makes sense to show them in a fashion similar to IPB's.
I would, however, tend to gray out the background of the disabled feature, i.e. only show Green on an enabled feature, and Red on a disabled feature.

I guess it's akin to using a slider... So don't mind me :lol:

Arantor

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #6, on November 28th, 2012, 05:12 PM »
It doesn't have to have text in it (doing that in an image would be hard)

However, there's always other options, for example, using a tick and a cross. I happened to pick up https://stacksocial.com/sales/impressionist-ui-bundle the other day, which has some examples of using it (which is what made me think of it) and as far as I can see from the licence there would be no issue with my building images out of it for our purposes.
Quote
As you can see, the dropdown (at least in the Wedge version)
As does the yesno type I added yesterday, which essentially brings the AeMe version to anywhere in the standard admin panel (but also means it can conveniently be switched out for any new type, without affecting checkboxes)

There is one side effect to using sliders though and that's the iOS effect. (Technically, it's also an OS X thing, but it's more obvious on iOS) Specifically, when you change settings in iOS, like the sliders, you don't have to hit a save button - they apply as soon as you hit the button.

This brings me to something I was intrigued about in IPB - when you do a search in the admin panel there, you're actually shown the items and you can amend them right there in the search response popup. I'm not sure how I feel about it but it's certainly interesting from a UI point of view. (You still have to hit save though)

Nao

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Arantor

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #9, on January 16th, 2013, 12:23 AM »
Well, not necessarily the coloured radio - but *something*. Egad checkboxes are SO DULL :P

godboko71

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agent47

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #11, on January 16th, 2013, 02:37 AM »
Personally sliders have sorta confused me too especially if we're talking about the kind of sliders that of EosAlpha; those I know a lot of people are going to find confusing. If the sliders are going to be labelled 'on/off' on either side (which is going to take up more space) then I suppose it's fine.
Although I think it's best going with the option that's pretty and straightforward over pretty and cool.

Arantor

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agent47

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #13, on January 16th, 2013, 02:45 AM »Last edited on January 16th, 2013, 03:06 AM
Well I've never owned an Apple product but if we're talking about something like this then yes, it can get slightly confusing because as depicted in the image, you're not sure it's ALREADY turned on or if you've got to SLIDE it to turn it on. I know I kinda sound stupid but it could happen to a lot of people especially if you've never used an Apple product.

Arantor

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Re: Really petty, but I got to ask
« Reply #14, on January 16th, 2013, 02:46 AM »
It says 'on' so it's on... either slide it or tap it to turn it off... the behaviour is surprisingly intuitive actually.
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