Flashcards Configuration Screen: Revert button goes back

[Shun]

Hello Mike,

when I tap the Revert button at the top right of a flashcard test configuration screen, I am taken back to the main Flashcards test profile screen, just like when tapping the Back button, with my settings preserved. I would have expected Revert to reset the profile settings to a factory default or some other previously configured setting.

An ideal arrangement of buttons might be as follows:

• Replace the Revert button by a Start button that starts a test.
• Place a Revert test (To start over, or whatever Revert is currently intended to do) button where the Start Test button currently is
• Leave the Back button in its current position.

Intuitively, most use the top right button to confirm and continue from what they have set in the screen, proceeding from left to right. (That must be in Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, as well.)

Do you agree? Interested to read your thinking.

Cheers,

Shun

 

[mikelove]

This was a case where all of the solutions were bad and we picked what we thought was the least bad one; we needed a way to undo changes, and yet we couldn't simply go with save/cancel or whatever because we also save changes when you start a test. The revert button should restore the settings to what they were before you entered the screen - is that not happening now?

I don't really like the idea of putting a start button at the top right corner, because I think people won't notice it, and I want the ability to put notifications (like 'invalid cards', but more can come later) right next to where they're starting a test so they see them. It's also a departure from how things work now, when we already have more than enough of those.

 

[Shun]

Ah, I think I see what it did. I changed my settings, then tapped on Back and went back in, then tapped Revert at which point it would just go back without changing anything. Perhaps if no changes were made, the Revert button would have to be greyed out?

But isn't placing the Revert button at the top right actually a departure from the standard?
Personally, I don't worry about incorrect card input that much to need to have that information very close to the Start button.

 

[mikelove]

It is a departure from the standard, but it's unavoidable if save = back because back has to go at the top left. I suppose in theory it could be buried at the bottom, but then people who change a setting accidentally might not realize it's there; having it at the top along with the back button makes it easier to find.

 

[Shun]

Yeah, I thought Back for "Save and go back", Start for "Save and start". But by graying out Revert if it doesn't have anything to revert, I think it would be much more understandable, as well.

Since Pleco 3.2 had the Start test button in the main screen, too, sticking to the traditional way may be a good argument to leave it as it is.