[Fwd: Re: Confusion of Applet and Capplet :)]

[nils <n p sun com>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Confusion of Applet and Capplet :)
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 09:33:19 -0600
From: nils <n p sun com>
To: Glynn Foster <glynn foster Sun COM>
CC: Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>, usability gnome org
References:
<3B31529A 72216785 sun com><20010621155049 A828 blitzkrieg battleship>
<3B320D25 58ED4B74 sun com> <3B3222FD D091C78D menthos com>
<3B322FF0 8CBBC5A9 sun com>

Glynn Foster wrote:

> Christian Rose wrote:
> >
> > There are plenty of other reasons why terminology should be picked so
> > that it translates easily. Invented nonsense words like "Gizmo",
> > "Yokeys", "Thingameybobs", "Whizlets" and "Evilets" are particulary bad
> > examples. The reason is that they simply are nonsense words that give no
> > information about what they are in themselves. They are thus hard to
> > understand as terminology even by English users, and the situation just
> > gets worse when exporting the terminology to another language.
>
> Of course you are right in saying this...I thought there could be some
> term that could be used to describe these apps - and yes, most/all of
> the above are not particularly untuitive for what they provide...
>
> There is also another problem. Some of the current applets are quite
> small...which means that if you don't do Add to Panel->Applet and
> instead goto the main menu with Program->Applet then there could
> be some confusion....Perhaps removing the Applet entry in the main
> menu is the solution to this problem -
>
>         Applets->Utility->Screenshooter
>
> nothing happens...where the fuck is it?...Perhaps the addition of the
> word 'Panel' in front of 'Applet' solves it...although I still think it
> is quite unintuitive.I think I'd prefer to see addition of applets to
> the panel through the 'Add to panel' menus....[wherever they might be].

The current menu structure is partly based on what the feature is
implemented as (applet versus application). But the user just
wants to take a snapshot, they don't know how its implemented. The
menu taxonomy/structure should be based on tasks not only
implementation attributes.

Whether a user invokes an applet or application they should get the
appropriate amount of feedback so that they know exactly what has
happened.

Nils