Hot answers tagged settings
171
Besides the arguments others have listed (Aircraft requirements, power saving) we should not forget about security.
Before the tablet and smartphone era you had a great control over your computer in an emergency: if you pulled the UTP cable, you could guarantee that the computer is isolated from the network. If you pulled the power cord, you could guarantee ...
127
Security
A hardware radio switch has security benefits to it in that when it is off, you know for a fact that nothing is connected to your laptop wirelessly. The radio switch usually turns off all wireless communication, including Bluetooth and 3G.
I have heard that this is a requirement in certain military environments, but I have not seen any evidence ...
52
Airplanes
These switches allow you to disable wireless transmitters without first turning them on in the middle of a flight, when their use may be prohibited.
There seems to be some consternation regarding this answer. I have reworded it to address some of the concerns that have been voiced. In addition...
I'm not saying that any rules regarding the ...
18
In Emergency Situations
Sometimes you need to turn off your internet connection as fast as possible. For example, you download a software, then double click on it, and then you realize that it is not the genuine .exe file but it is a malicious file. In this situation, you may want to turn of your connection as fast as possible, and it may take a very long ...
14
A couple reasons that I use my Wi-Fi switch that other people haven't mentioned:
When I'm in a LAN party, I want to force my computer to use the Ethernet cable networking me with other players to get the most out of my network and prevent some random app from interrupting play.
I don't trust public networks, so when I'm not in a Wi-Fi zone I trust, I turn ...
14
I think the concept of a locked slider that is not disabled is not something you need to put into practice, and you should just not show the slider in the first place.
The clue to that is that you are asking Visually, what is the best way to show that a slider is locked? This is not your ultimate goal behind this - you have a bigger problem for which this ...
13
Many might think that the complementary email might be useless, but this is actually a security message. What if someone left their account logged in, and someone changed the password for them? The ACTUAL owner of the profile should be notified that it was changed.
It has become a standard to make sure that users are aware of what information has been ...
13
If the slider is locked then don't show the slider at all--only show the element if the user can interact with it.
Instead, just show a progress bar with the value:
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
Since the value is not editable, then your requirement is to inform the user what the value of the object is. The ...
10
Anyone who needs to work in an area where you're not allowed to transmit/receive RF needs one. Part of the building where I work has those restrictions. Phones/tablets aren't allowed inside that part of the building because (among other unrelated reasons) there's no way to visually check if if the radios are disabled while the devices are powered off/in ...
7
My intuition says that showing the padlock icon on the slider handle is a bad idea. This is ambivalent and could also try to communicate, that the slider is locked in that particular value (as opposed to the sliding mechanism being locked).
If you want to display a padlock icon, maybe do so left or right of the slider.
The common standard for disabled ...
7
For me it has worked several times to re-initiate Wifi. Remember that most laptops use third party components, have dozens of configurations, which create dependencies. The status bar icon sometimes is not reliable, as it depends on the actual system state if it will work or not. Hardware switches turn off the device power, so it is way better for resetting. ...
6
I would suggest not to use asterisk since it is used to mark required fields. Instead let's compare several possible solutions:
(3),(4) are the most noticeable, but (4) seems to be more natural and easy to understand.
Color
Red and green are used for validation. Blue is the only one neutral left.
Forgot to mention combined approach can be used to ...
5
I would recommend you integrate it into the profile settings. However, I would suggest you move the "change profile picture" block upward to the top so it is more prominent on the page. As you have already said, you already have a large list of settings and I believe the "change profile picture" block is simple enough to not require its own tab.
Happy ...
5
Most people don't have an external amplifier or control on their audio output, so you can't assume it is there.
You then need two other controls. One master control to set the desired global range of all your applications, and local controls for each application to set their sound relative to your global setting.
If you tried to remove either one of ...
5
I would think really hard as to why these options might be 'advanced,' and unless they would confuse normal users, I'd avoid tucking them away.
It might be simpler both from a design & dev perspective to expose those elements alongside the 'simple' options. Make the base options stand out from a design direction. There's going to be a lot of ...
4
Would it be an option to go for a third alternative?
Either you use the physical switches for all settings, or you use the computer for all settings. There is no in-between, the computer sets all settings when it is used.
If modifying the hardware to indicate the override is not possible, then I think the least confusing way is to have the software ...
4
I would simply put a checkbox to the left of each feature name (I'm assuming 1 feature per line per your comment to Serg's response). To reinforce the checkbox visually, I'd also use color to help indicate the checked (or enabled) state.
This seems the most direct way and avoids items moving from group to group which can be confusing.
download bmml ...
4
If you don't provide the user the possibility to turn off a single confirmation, it looks to me like a bad idea as it will probably be used to turn off a single useless or annoying confirmation without being able to evaluate the whole impact of this action.
A better design may be to add a "Don't display this confirmation again" checkbox to each confirmation ...
3
Use whatever "slider" widget is default on that system (or something as similar to it as possible - if it is a web site, just pick a common well-known slider design and mimic its behavior). These default widgets have "locked" states (sometimes called read-only, sometimes called "disabled"), that clearly communicate that state (e.g. slider is greyed out).
...
3
From my point of view there are several problems:
Usually settings are grouped functionally but in your case functional groups will become broken.
Toggling option state will require movement of pointing device vertically and even may require vertical scrolling.
If you still need two list and beatiful fading you can organize your list into two columns ...
3
I wouldn't store in the localstorage. Localstorage is mainly for cache only. Store on the server, bind the data to the username. You can loose localstorage data when reinstalling computer, upgrading browser or working from home. Use it only for browser-specific settings, if any. Most people expect user-name authenticated webapps to magically work from ...
3
I suggest you investigate synthesizers and MIDI devices. These machines have faced this problem since the arrival of patch storage in the late 70s. If a patch was loaded, the pots were now awkwardly in the wrong positions. Popular solutions are:
-indicative leds showing the state;
- one led indicating that memory settings are now used and as such, ...
3
In context (i.e. while using the app), "Notifications" is probably the most user friendly language choice.
Examples from iOS:
iOS main settings uses "Notifications"
Facebook uses "Notifications" (interestingly when you click into this, the heading reads "Manage Push Notifications")
Twitter uses "Notifications"
These companies spend countless time and ...
2
You said it yourself:
You can always change the language for the time of a session with the
drop-down list, which is kind of confusing.
Is there a use case where users need to have that possibility to change to another language for during one session?
If not (which I suppose), the answer is easy: get rid of it. User can change their language ...
2
Your site must be having an home/welcome screen for an logged in user, now when the user changes the language why don't you direct him to welcome screen, but if he is trying to edit his profile and changes language while doing so, prompt him for unchanged fields if auto save is not provided.
By the way majority of users will select the language before at ...
2
People would generally tend to be surprised if they didn't get a confirmation email of changing password.
Not only does it serve as the early security alert option for those who may have had their account altered by others, but it also serves as a confidence booster for those who did genuinely change their password. Note that the email has to be immediate ...
2
As a "thing", the dedicated wifi off-switch seems to be on it's way out. Smartphones don't have them, and the PS Vita ditched the wi-fi button (though notably the 3DS has a wifi button now).
To me the PSP was a great case study in why these things were annoying. I would constantly have to turn on the Wi Fi switch; it was slightly easier to turn off than on, ...
2
In Firefox's about:config page, each user set setting is presented in bold:
This is extremely useful for settings that the user might come back to later, so that he/she are not expected to remember what he/she has changed before.
2
I would expand the page as needed. Exposing or hiding divs (or however you please). This practice is sort of like walking into a buffet; you only get what you want. The same principle applies here. I wouldnt force white-space on a user for the sake of having room for what "might-be" exposed. But there are a host of things to consider and Jayson certainly ...
2
Any request from a browser is (should be) accompanied with an Accept-Language header. On first visit, that header should be used to determine the preferred language, if and only if there is no language parameter in the URL. Additionally, a language selector should be provided to change the current setting. So the priorities are
Does the URL have a language ...
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