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phetsims / balancing-chemical-equations

"Balancing Chemical Equations" is an educational simulation in HTML5, by PhET Interactive Simulations.
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/balancing-chemical-equations
GNU General Public License v3.0
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concern about 'move' feature for game dialog #66

Closed jbphet closed 10 years ago

jbphet commented 10 years ago

I just took BCE for a test drive since @pixelzoom said that we are getting close to acceptance. I noticed that the feedback dialog has an icon in the upper left corner that is like a cross with four arrows on the ends. I wasn’t sure what this is or what it means, and tried clicking on it. Unless it has some meaning to people who are studying chemistry (and I freely admit that my chem background is pretty weak), I think you might want to consider removing it, since it has some potential for distraction and/or confusion.

Screen shot shown below with icon in question highlighted.

balancing chemical equations 1 0 0-dev

pixelzoom commented 10 years ago

The icon is supposed to denote that you can 'move' the dialog. This is as requested in the design doc. Assigning to @ycarpenterphet to evaluate this issue.

jbphet commented 10 years ago

I get it now based on @pixelzoom's answer to #64 - this icon indicates that the dialog can be dragged. This was not obvious to me, and I don't understand the value of being able to drag the dialog.

pixelzoom commented 10 years ago

The dialog needs to be moveable because it often obscured things that are behind it, particularly when you expand the dialog with the 'Show Why' button. And seeing what's behind it is necessary in order to understand what you did wrong.

ycarpenterphet commented 10 years ago

In the Java sim, the dialog box was moveable, but no student users were ever aware of the feature and therefore, no one used it.

The icon was added as cue for the moveability, and we'll see what it cues in interview later this week, and make a call after that.

pixelzoom commented 10 years ago

As a result of interviews, @ycarpenterphet requested via email:

Get rid of both the ‘Move’ icon and the movability feature of the feedback dialog - I’ve never seen any students use this feature in the Java sim (likely because they didn’t realize it was available), nor did any make any indication that they wished they could do so or see behind it. Now I’ve also seen it in a touch environment, where it was known the box could be moved, and STILL no one chooses to move it or needed to do so.

pixelzoom commented 10 years ago

Removing the 'move' feature is easy, will do.

pixelzoom commented 10 years ago

Feature removed, closing.