[maemo-developers] Reduce fremantle button spacing

[From: Andrew Flegg]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 22:51, David Greaves <david at dgreaves.com> wrote:
> Andrew Flegg wrote:
>>
>> I don't know the answer to your question, but the "right" answer
>> [...]
>
> Disagree.

I quoted "right" because I /believe/ that's the answer the platform
architects at Nokia would prefer.

> I think you propose a possible answer - but although the platform
> should be striving to make it very easy to develop finger-friendly
> applications, I am *firmly* of the belief that it should not
> prevent or hinder those who see mobility of stylus-based apps as a
> tremendous benefit that the tablets provide.

Perhaps. I would hope that developers would consider very carefully,
though, diverging from the standards of the platform - regardless of
their own opinions on finger-friendly vs. finger-unfriendly.[1]

Now, I'm fairly firm in the belief that many of the problems aren't
solved by either/or answers: for example, the "fat" scrollbars in
Maemo to date may well be "finger friendly" - but they're a UI
nightmare. Drag-to-scroll is finger/stylus agnostic and so is the best
of both worlds.

Admittedly, in this specific case of button sizes the agnostic
solution is less clear.

Cheers,

Andrew

[1] A similar argument would be made about "Cancel" buttons which,
    in Maemo 5, shouldn't be present; with the user dismissing a
    dialogue in different ways. The thread on ITT about it, in
    particular, was vehement - but I'd hope a developer who
    prefers "Cancel" buttons would accept that their users are
    benefited by consistency over the developer's personal
    opinion.

-- 
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org  |  http://www.bleb.org/
Maemo Community Council chair