Comments on: Transparent Messages in JavaScript

By: Oliver Tse

Oliver Tse — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:23:14 +0000

I think it is a good idea worth experimenting. Personally, I absolutely hate clicking on the “monolog” dialog boxes because it disturbs my train (or flow) of thought.

If the message was very important, we **probably** wouldn’t use the disappearing message box. Aza did mention “logs” or history to persist messages.

Personally, I like articles like this because it meshes together usability and the technology. Besides, any tribute to Jef Raskin is awesome!

Keep it coming!

By: Josh Gormley

Josh Gormley — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:55:44 +0000

I too use a technique similar to this on an app that I’m building. The difference in my app is that I show the alert right above the area of interest for the user, not at the top of the screen away from where the user might be looking.
I like the idea of presenting feedback to the user while not locking down the entire system until they respond to the message.

By: webthreads.de » Transparente Nachrichten/Message Boxes

webthreads.de » Transparente Nachrichten/Message Boxes — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:41:53 +0000

[...] (via Ajaxian) [...]

By: Humanized messages » Good Old Tech » Blog Archive

Humanized messages » Good Old Tech » Blog Archive — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:08:35 +0000

[...] Ajaxian linked to an article over at humanized.com about transparent message boxes. I really like the idea, and it would be a snap to implement these in dojo, I will add this to my todo-list for the good old library. Dialog boxes are bad enough: they pop-up at inconvenient times, they derail our train of thought, and normally we don’t even read them. But this type of dialog box is worse. It’s not even a dialog box. It’s monolog box. There’s nothing one can do with this messages but click “OK”. Or wait and click “OK”. They have, as I’ve explained before, 0% efficiency. Beyond that, monolog boxes can have frightening consequences: because I often use two monitors, I’ve spent panicked seconds thinking I’d lost my work due to a crashâ€¦ only to discover later that a monolog box had appeared on the other screen and stopped Word from operating normally. Even with a single monitor, you can miss the dialog box, and you’ll have a similar scare. Bookmark to: [...]

By: Gonzalo

Gonzalo — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 07:16:39 +0000

Tsk. I just found it when I had already given up. I was talking about protoGrowl, in case anyone wants to know.

By: Gonzalo

Gonzalo — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 07:11:40 +0000

I’m searching through the archives but I can’t find it. Still, I’m almost sure I saw something some time ago about using something similar, but in a stack/queue of boxes each of which dissappeared after a while (no mouse or key detection there). It was to be used for logging purposes.

Anyone remeber that? How about mixing both ideas a bit?

And also, a certain delay or a minimum amount of time after activation could be implemented to overcome what many have already pointed about messages fading out too soon.

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:27:50 +0000

The Humanized Group is about thoughtful inferface design not ness. ajax powered. I support what they do.

By: Jesse Kuhnert

Jesse Kuhnert — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:15:43 +0000

Yes, please don’t stop posting stories like this. Ajax in general is good, but when you combine it with cool “usability” techniques it’s invaluable. ..

By: Ben Galbraith

Ben Galbraith — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:55:09 +0000

K. Bublitz: The value adds of the message fading out and responding to mouse movement make it a little bit more complex than what you’ve said, and there’s at least one comment indicating that someone found the story useful… and, I think the point is that you don’t have to dismiss the dialog.

I actually use a similar technique for error messages in an application I’m working on. The difference for me is that a decoration persists that indicates where the error occured in the event the message is dismissed inadvertantly (in the event the button that caused the error can’t simply be pressed again).

By: K. Bublitz

K. Bublitz — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:37:49 +0000

Erm.. you can’t be serious. This is news? Position fixed, opacity 0.6, big ass font and you are done.. weee.. :p

Sorry, i dont wanna troll around, but this is so simple i refuse to believe that this is something no one ever heard about OR did before.. and secondly: not recognized that this is as bad as alert().

This can be good, but places i’ve seen it suffered on the implementation. Best is to avoid it cause it is simply _not_ unobstrusive. I would compare it to LayerAds.. Jump at you just the second you began to find your way in.

PS: Chris put it right… the reason i dumped this method ages ago.

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:25:56 +0000

Is there a way to pull up a history? My mouse gets bumped around as I move things around on the desk and I’d hate to miss something important.

By: Chris Purcell

Chris Purcell — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:20:22 +0000

Great, another UI designer stumbling on the magic-vanish box. They invariably pop up while you’re typing, vanishing instantly and leaving you wondering what just happened.

By: Lautreamont

Lautreamont — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:19:13 +0000

Great!!! I love this idea. Even though I don’t use these kind of dialogs on my site.

;o)

By: Just Shelley » Stop re-inventing this wheel

Just Shelley » Stop re-inventing this wheel — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:32:46 +0000

[...] Perhaps at SxSW, ppk can convince the new horde of Ajax developers to stop acting as if that they’ve invented the technology, all squeeky new. Per Ajaxian, the concept of ‘transparent’ messages from Humanized. [...]