Discussion:
[Design] Applicability and necessity of mw-ui-quiet
Shahyar Ghobadpour
2014-03-25 22:43:57 UTC
Permalink
Hey everyone,

There's no list for this, so I am assuming that if you've been invited to a
MediaWiki UI Hack Day, then you are interested, so you've been CCed. In
addition, the Design list is on this, so, please make sure to reply all.

Our team (Core Features) has been implementing MW UI as the basis of our
design with the new Flow extension. I think we're the first team to really
do that to this extent, and so I have some preliminary feedback to give
regarding this.

Design mockups have frequently called for the use of the "mw-ui-quiet"
class. Unfortunately, we've been running into problems with it. Often, the
use case is one of two scenarios:

1. In a *form*, next to a regular mw-ui-button.
2. Outside of a form, as a *link* with hover/focus context color.

Both of these scenarios have presented us with a serious problem: having a
content element with padding, but no discernible borders, makes aligning
these buttons impossible semantically. You are essentially forced to
override mw-ui-quiet CSS locally to have no padding for it to look
"normal", and then in that case, they are no longer button-like, but are
instead simple links.

Problems:

- *Exhibit A* - in a form: note the excessive whitespace between the
Cancel button and the others. Increasing the margin between buttons only
makes matters worse, and causes the button to look even further away than
intended.

* Solution:* We are now using a bordered-button for all form buttons in
Flow. We shouldn't be trying to hide buttons from the end user.

[image: Inline image 1]


- *Exhibit B* - independent links: they do not align to edges, and they
cannot match up to other inline-block or inline elements (we also lack a
mw-ui-spacer or such class to apply to other elements so that they may
inherit its padding and simulate it to even things out).



* Originally, we were using a CSS override to 0 the padding, but we
shouldn't have to do that for mw-ui elements in core if we want to maintain
a coherent style moving forward. Solution: *I've since changed these to
simple anchors with no special classes.

[image: Inline image 2]


Given these issues, I can't see any real semantic usage for mw-ui-quiet.
Can anyone give me a current usage that necessitates keeping it around?

In fact, I'm advocating that we remove it entirely from core, and instead
use a different quiet button that is somewhere between the current quiet
and the current regular buttons. I've been calling them "mw-ui-sleeper" for
now. Here is an example of it in action (on topic Reply, Preview, and
Cancel). http://area51.yar.gs/wmf/flow1/


Thoughts and concerns?

Thanks,
Shahyar
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Jared Zimmerman
2014-03-25 23:22:18 UTC
Permalink
Shahyar and I discussed, action is, that the "in-line" are no longer quiet
state, and the quiet buttons get special padding rules, Shahyar can expand
on technical bits if he chooses



*Jared Zimmerman * \\ Director of User Experience \\ Wikimedia Foundation

M : +1 415 609 4043 | : @JaredZimmerman<https://twitter.com/JaredZimmerman>



On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Shahyar Ghobadpour <
Post by Shahyar Ghobadpour
Hey everyone,
There's no list for this, so I am assuming that if you've been invited to
a MediaWiki UI Hack Day, then you are interested, so you've been CCed. In
addition, the Design list is on this, so, please make sure to reply all.
Our team (Core Features) has been implementing MW UI as the basis of our
design with the new Flow extension. I think we're the first team to really
do that to this extent, and so I have some preliminary feedback to give
regarding this.
Design mockups have frequently called for the use of the "mw-ui-quiet"
class. Unfortunately, we've been running into problems with it. Often, the
1. In a *form*, next to a regular mw-ui-button.
2. Outside of a form, as a *link* with hover/focus context color.
Both of these scenarios have presented us with a serious problem: having a
content element with padding, but no discernible borders, makes aligning
these buttons impossible semantically. You are essentially forced to
override mw-ui-quiet CSS locally to have no padding for it to look
"normal", and then in that case, they are no longer button-like, but are
instead simple links.
- *Exhibit A* - in a form: note the excessive whitespace between the
Cancel button and the others. Increasing the margin between buttons only
makes matters worse, and causes the button to look even further away than
intended.
* Solution:* We are now using a bordered-button for all form buttons in
Flow. We shouldn't be trying to hide buttons from the end user.
[image: Inline image 1]
- *Exhibit B* - independent links: they do not align to edges, and
they cannot match up to other inline-block or inline elements (we also lack
a mw-ui-spacer or such class to apply to other elements so that they
may inherit its padding and simulate it to even things out).
* Originally, we were using a CSS override to 0 the padding, but we
shouldn't have to do that for mw-ui elements in core if we want to maintain
a coherent style moving forward. Solution: *I've since changed these
to simple anchors with no special classes.
[image: Inline image 2]
Given these issues, I can't see any real semantic usage for mw-ui-quiet.
Can anyone give me a current usage that necessitates keeping it around?
In fact, I'm advocating that we remove it entirely from core, and instead
use a different quiet button that is somewhere between the current quiet
and the current regular buttons. I've been calling them "mw-ui-sleeper"
for now. Here is an example of it in action (on topic Reply, Preview, and
Cancel). http://area51.yar.gs/wmf/flow1/
Thoughts and concerns?
Thanks,
Shahyar
_______________________________________________
Design mailing list
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https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design
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S Page
2014-03-26 01:58:24 UTC
Permalink
Shahyar,
thanks for noticing the details. Now I've seen the ragged spacing of
Cancel [ Preview ] [ Reply ] it can't be unseen!

TL;DR :
1. I think having consistent bordered buttons in a form is worthwhile, and
mw-ui-sleeper for the secondary ones is a good solution to avoid the
multi-colored Skittles problem.
2. We should be able to apply the coloring behavior on hover & click of
constructive/destructive/progressive/neutral to any text, including Reply *
Edit * Thank.
3. What about your mw-ui-thin for the button in the topic titlebar ?

Talking about these things is hard because we're imagining what button
states will be and how they'll combine. It would be great if you could
build a new Living Style Guide with many example buttons and text
explaining the CSS usage. Change mediawiki.ui in core, cd resources , type
make kss.


On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Shahyar Ghobadpour <
You are essentially forced to override mw-ui-quiet CSS locally to have no
padding for it to look "normal", and then in that case, they are no longer
button-like, but are instead simple links.
(There is another approach, which is to draw a border around mw-ui-quiet
buttons like Cancel upon hover and click. "Why is this alignment ugly?
Oh,it's a button." I'm not crazy about that solution.)
-
* Solution:* We are now using a bordered-button for all form buttons in
Flow. We shouldn't be trying to hide buttons from the end user.
OK, but then we do hide buttons with Reply * Edit * Thanks . I think the
current mix of borderless and bordered in Cancel [ Preview ] [Reply] can be
defended, though I prefer your approach.
-
* Solution: *I've since changed [ Reply * Edit * Thanks ] to simple
anchors with no special classes.
Noooo. These should have the constructive/progressive/destructive coloring
that mw-ui-quiet buttons get on hover and click. Try it at
http://tools.wmflabs.org/styleguide/desktop/section-2.html . Button colors
communicate meaning, they're not just some arbitrary Agora color palette,
we need to use them.

A simple anchor with underline has problems for me because I right-click on
anchors to copy URLs, to open in new tabs and windows, etc.

So I think mw-ui-constructive/progressive/destructive and mw-ui-neutral
should be decoupled from mw-ui-button's border and padding, so that you can
apply them anywhere to get the state highlighting.
In fact, I'm advocating that we remove [mw-ui-quiet] entirely from core,
and instead use a different quiet button that is somewhere between the
current quiet and the current regular buttons. I've been calling them "
mw-ui-sleeper" for now. Here is an example of it in action (on topic
Reply, Preview, and Cancel). http://area51.yar.gs/wmf/flow1/
(Note: click in a textarea to see the buttons appear, and enter something
to see them activate.) I like it. Your mockup also introduces a
mw-ui-thin [Reply] inside the topic titlebar. When would people use that
instead of your inline Reply button or a full button? Is it a Flow-only
design?
--
=S Page Features engineer
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Bartosz Dziewoński
2014-04-03 15:49:46 UTC
Permalink
Since no one answered, let me ask a different question – would anyone oppose if I were to remove the .mw-ui-quiet class?
Actually, what is the rationale for having a separate "quiet" style?
The one that seems to be given here seems to be the "inverse Fitts' law"
[1], but I don't really see how just making a button more bland helps with
this.
I'd be all for killing it and sticking to a simpler visual convention,
just using regular (non-colored) buttons where we'd previously try to use
the quiet ones.
[1] http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-opposite-of-fitts-law/
(Resending because something ate the previous one.)
--
Matma Rex
Shahyar Ghobadpour
2014-04-03 16:38:07 UTC
Permalink
A "quieter than normal" button is necessary, I just don't like the current
implementation. So, we can't get rid of it just yet.

I have a patch going up for review today with an additional type called
sleeper buttons, which are somewhere between normal and quiet.

--Shahyar
Post by Bartosz Dziewoński
Since no one answered, let me ask a different question – would anyone
oppose if I were to remove the .mw-ui-quiet class?
On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Bartosz Dziewoński <matma.rex at gmail.com
Actually, what is the rationale for having a separate "quiet" style?
The one that seems to be given here seems to be the "inverse Fitts' law"
[1], but I don't really see how just making a button more bland helps with
this.
I'd be all for killing it and sticking to a simpler visual convention,
just using regular (non-colored) buttons where we'd previously try to use
the quiet ones.
[1] http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-opposite-of-fitts-law/
(Resending because something ate the previous one.)
--
Matma Rex
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Jared Zimmerman
2014-04-03 23:06:11 UTC
Permalink
As Shahyar said, we're still iterating but there will be a need for a
"non-primary" button in many places throughout the UI



*Jared Zimmerman * \\ Director of User Experience \\ Wikimedia Foundation

M : +1 415 609 4043 | : @JaredZimmerman<https://twitter.com/JaredZimmerman>



On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 9:38 AM, Shahyar Ghobadpour <
Post by Shahyar Ghobadpour
A "quieter than normal" button is necessary, I just don't like the current
implementation. So, we can't get rid of it just yet.
I have a patch going up for review today with an additional type called
sleeper buttons, which are somewhere between normal and quiet.
--Shahyar
Post by Bartosz Dziewoński
Since no one answered, let me ask a different question – would anyone
oppose if I were to remove the .mw-ui-quiet class?
On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Bartosz Dziewoński <matma.rex at gmail.com
Actually, what is the rationale for having a separate "quiet" style?
The one that seems to be given here seems to be the "inverse Fitts' law"
[1], but I don't really see how just making a button more bland helps with
this.
I'd be all for killing it and sticking to a simpler visual convention,
just using regular (non-colored) buttons where we'd previously try to use
the quiet ones.
[1] http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-opposite-of-fitts-law/
(Resending because something ate the previous one.)
--
Matma Rex
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Design mailing list
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https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design
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Bartosz Dziewoński
2014-04-05 17:20:39 UTC
Permalink
As Shahyar said, we're still iterating but there will be a need for a "non-primary" button in many places throughout the UI
And as I said, "[I suggest] sticking to a simpler visual convention, just using regular (non-colored) buttons where we'd previously try to use the quiet ones.".

The primary button will, as far as I see, *always* be a .mw-ui-progressive (eye-catching blue), .mw-ui-constructive (eye-catching green) or a .mw-ui-destructive (eye-catching red). The non-primary buttons will not have any of these classes, and thus will be dimmed grey. That's more than enough distinction for me.
--
Matma Rex
Shahyar Ghobadpour
2014-04-05 17:30:07 UTC
Permalink
Non-primary buttons will often still have context (eg. destructive for
"Discard"). We'd like to allow these to remain, without overly drawing away
from the primary action.

--Shahyar
On Fri, 04 Apr 2014 01:06:11 +0200, Jared Zimmerman <
As Shahyar said, we're still iterating but there will be a need for a
Post by Jared Zimmerman
"non-primary" button in many places throughout the UI
And as I said, "[I suggest] sticking to a simpler visual convention, just
using regular (non-colored) buttons where we'd previously try to use the
quiet ones.".
The primary button will, as far as I see, *always* be a .mw-ui-progressive
(eye-catching blue), .mw-ui-constructive (eye-catching green) or a
.mw-ui-destructive (eye-catching red). The non-primary buttons will not
have any of these classes, and thus will be dimmed grey. That's more than
enough distinction for me.
--
Matma Rex
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Design mailing list
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Bartosz Dziewoński
2014-04-05 17:49:14 UTC
Permalink
Non-primary buttons will often still have context (eg. destructive for "Discard"). We'd like to allow these to remain, without overly drawing away from the primary action.
I think this would be overengineered. The non-primary button should be just that – a dimmed, non-colored non-primary button. We shouldn't draw attention to it with colors.
--
Matma Rex
Shahyar Ghobadpour
2014-04-06 03:59:18 UTC
Permalink
It's less for drawing attention to it, but rather to make the action itself
clear on hover and focus. In an inactive state, it has a toned down style
to avoid unnecessarily attracting eyes to non content areas.

--Shahyar
On Sat, 05 Apr 2014 19:30:07 +0200, Shahyar Ghobadpour <
Non-primary buttons will often still have context (eg. destructive for
Post by Shahyar Ghobadpour
"Discard"). We'd like to allow these to remain, without overly drawing away
from the primary action.
I think this would be overengineered. The non-primary button should be
just that – a dimmed, non-colored non-primary button. We shouldn't draw
attention to it with colors.
--
Matma Rex
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Design mailing list
Design at lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design
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Jared Zimmerman
2014-04-07 20:01:47 UTC
Permalink
Bartosz, I think you and I are on the same page here. Shahyar agreed
we'd proceed as-designed and do some iterative testing. Does that sound
right Shahyar? If you have the time, to implement both styles we could do
split testing with both via usertesting.com



*Jared Zimmerman * \\ Director of User Experience \\ Wikimedia Foundation

M : +1 415 609 4043 | : @JaredZimmerman<https://twitter.com/JaredZimmerman>



On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 8:59 PM, Shahyar Ghobadpour <
Post by Shahyar Ghobadpour
It's less for drawing attention to it, but rather to make the action
itself clear on hover and focus. In an inactive state, it has a toned down
style to avoid unnecessarily attracting eyes to non content areas.
--Shahyar
On Sat, 05 Apr 2014 19:30:07 +0200, Shahyar Ghobadpour <
Non-primary buttons will often still have context (eg. destructive for
Post by Shahyar Ghobadpour
"Discard"). We'd like to allow these to remain, without overly drawing away
from the primary action.
I think this would be overengineered. The non-primary button should be
just that - a dimmed, non-colored non-primary button. We shouldn't draw
attention to it with colors.
--
Matma Rex
_______________________________________________
Design mailing list
Design at lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design
_______________________________________________
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https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design
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