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Would it not have been nice if Microsoft included animations for dialog boxes and task dialogs in Windows Vista? I understand that it is used in the context of progress of operations. The WinSAT assessment uses this animation:
However, it would have been visually appealing and very "Longhorn"-ish if it were used for dialog boxes and task dialogs as well. A similar animation would have perhaps been appropriate for all of the following examples (especially those for Windows Meeting Space and Windows Security Center):
In my opinion, it only makes sense when actual stuff is going on, like file copying, WinSAT (obviously) and, as mentioned in one of the shots, Security Center definitions updating... i'd rather add some kind of a glowing effect onto dialogs which require your consent, like UAC dialogs and so on
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I don't really see any reason why should a static dialog, where a user is expected to make a choice, contain a dynamic animation - it contradicts itself. Using animations, especially such "marquee" ones, implies, as you said, that some operation is in progress and I don't think it would do anything but distract the user.
Yeah, it would be a nice touch, but using animations requires strategy; after all, the goal is not to distract the end user of the task it's doing, isn't it? Even though I like animations, one can't place them everywhere (even if they are visual-appealing) for productivity reasons. No much, but they can low the user's performance in some tasks.
PD: the type of animation is also important. A slow or relaxed animation is less distracting than a quick one; the same with colors, certain light tones are more striking than dark ones.
Having given this some more thought, I think that:
1. Either the existing file copy animation or something similar to it would make sense for the Windows Defender Definitions update dialog, as they both represent a similarly passive action. Perhaps a light travelling back and forth horizontally or in a circular path would suit this dialog, as if to represent just...progress/activity, rather than something going in a specific direction. Amusingly, Windows sort of already does something like this...but on the progress bar itself. This goes for most progress bars, in fact.
2. For the Task Dialogs, I think that while an animation on the header region might not make too much sense, having some kind of light flow from the descriptive text to the available actions could help to guide the user's attention, as long as it's really, really subtle. And, y'know, as long as we can trust that such dialogs would never display a large enough amount of descriptive text as to cause the light to disrupt the user's attempt to read the text.
3. The Windows Update pending dialog, as I see it, could benefit from a pulsing animation which is initially rather attention-grabbing, but calms down quickly after the dialog appears. Why? So that at first, it grabs the user's attention (e.g. so they can't miss it and then be frustrated when their computer restarts shortly afterwards), but then calms down and allows them to focus on the question at hand. In fact, a pulsing or *smooth* flashing animation which repeats only once or twice would work quite well here.
Having said all of this, I don't feel that this question can really be answered without a means of trying it out for ourselves, which I doubt anyone here has. I certainly don't, but if I did, I'd hardly be surprised if atleast some of these proposals turned out to still do more harm than good...as was indicated prior, sometimes, less is more.
maicolinux wrote:Yeah, it would be a nice touch, but using animations requires strategy; after all, the goal is not to distract the end user of the task it's doing, isn't it? Even though I like animations, one can't place them everywhere (even if they are visual-appealing) for productivity reasons. No much, but they can low the user's performance in some tasks.
PD: the type of animation is also important. A slow or relaxed animation is less distracting than a quick one; the same with colors, certain light tones are more striking than dark ones.
People apparently have no issue with the aurora animations in "Longhorn" ("Why doesn't Vista have this!?!?!?") even in the interface elements where they seemingly would make just as little sense (e.g., aurora in details pane) to some people.
maicolinux wrote:Yeah, it would be a nice touch, but using animations requires strategy; after all, the goal is not to distract the end user of the task it's doing, isn't it? Even though I like animations, one can't place them everywhere (even if they are visual-appealing) for productivity reasons. No much, but they can low the user's performance in some tasks.
PD: the type of animation is also important. A slow or relaxed animation is less distracting than a quick one; the same with colors, certain light tones are more striking than dark ones.
People apparently have no issue with the aurora animations in "Longhorn" ("Why doesn't Vista have this!?!?!?") even in the interface elements where they seemingly would make just as little sense (e.g., aurora in details pane) to some people.
maicolinux wrote:Yeah, it would be a nice touch, but using animations requires strategy; after all, the goal is not to distract the end user of the task it's doing, isn't it? Even though I like animations, one can't place them everywhere (even if they are visual-appealing) for productivity reasons. No much, but they can low the user's performance in some tasks.
PD: the type of animation is also important. A slow or relaxed animation is less distracting than a quick one; the same with colors, certain light tones are more striking than dark ones.
People apparently have no issue with the aurora animations in "Longhorn" ("Why doesn't Vista have this!?!?!?") even in the interface elements where they seemingly would make just as little sense (e.g., aurora in details pane) to some people.
Different people have different tastes...
AlphaBeta, thank you again for responding (such is unfortunately rare), but... How are subjective preferences relevant to the previous post? You viewed my proposal from an analytical perspective in the context of appropriate interface design (e.g., factors such as user interaction). Why should it matter if other people have different tastes in regard to the, say, preview pane aurora? Would this—should this—not also be deemed inappropriate based on the previous commentary and reasons to exclude or include such animations?
