I'm working on a legacy system written in C++ with MFC. This system was build on 486 and one of the best way to let know the user that there was something that didn't work without using a modal message box was the classic "beep".
Our software is over using this technique in various way:
- Double-clicking on an visual entity that is not available -->beep!
- Trying to insert something but something's wrong somewhere -->beep!
- When moving a visual entity with the mouse and the place is wrong -->beep!
- And so on...
In some places, the beep is paired with a visual cue like a message box or something in red, but in most of the visual manipulations, there is nothing since the modal approach is not possible (will change the focus and ruin the manipulation).
My main concern is that most of the new computer just don't come with a pc speaker anymore. Also, most of your client don't even have speaker on their computer so they don't hear the "wav" that replaced the beep on modern OS.
What can I use to tell the user something is wrong that is not too much invasive and modeless?