Re: Desktop Configuration

[Tom Vogt <tom lemuria org>]

Dan Effugas Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
> I haven't seen anything to say that users aren't going to fear our interface
> any other than ANY less.  Burden of proof is on you--YOU'RE the one asking
> the user all these questions they don't know how to answer!

dan, can you please stop exegerating beyond bizarrness? I really don't see
any positive result from a discussion that way. and if you get back from the
bizare to the real, you'll notice that one of the things I said was exactly
that choices should be presented, but explained and shown. I'm not ignorant
enough to throw the user a default config I like and assume he'll like it,
too. give him choices, explain what his options are and assure him that
whatever he selects, he can always change it later.

what part of that is Bad(tm) ?


> >of course not.  that's why part of what I'm proposing is a sane default
> that
> >makes sense for at least the majority of people. the 2% who really don't
> >have ANY games on their system will have to click 2 buttons or something,
> >you've gotta draw the line somewhere.
> 
> What does the *research* say about the usability of dual button shortcuts?
> Anybody?  This seems like something that was tried and dropped, like
> double-click-with-right-button.

what are you speaking about? or are you just nitpicking on some obscure
detail of a quick example?

<sigh> ok, here we go:

say we have a default setup much like an afterstep wharf. DON'T discuss if
this makes sense, just say we have this, ok? thanks. I really don't want to
argue every second sentence.
now within this setup, there are three folders, much like the one that gnome
has now. one is "system" and contains most of the stuff that's in the gnome
menu at this time. the second one is "apps" and contains all non-system
applications - wordprocessors, gimp, mp3 players - you name it. the third is
"games" and contains - right, just that.
say 2% (or 3.765224+pi/10 - doesn't matter) of the users really don't have a
single game on their system. they click right-mouse-button on the folder,
move the pointer half an inch to "remove from panel" and click again. gone.

what reasearch about usability do you want to make on that?

of course one can do other things, say let the panel automatically not
display empty folders. one would have to discuss the merrits and flaws of
such a solution (flaw: users won't notice that such a folder exists and
all), but all that doesn't matter, it all was just a damn example, man.


-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
		-- Henry Spencer