Re: [Usability] spatial nautilus concerns, revisited

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinouts gnome org>]

David,

On Thu, 5 May 2005, David Feldman wrote:

> http://interfacethis.com/pub/index.php?itemid=56
>
> I fear I may get flamed out of existence for it but would like to know 
> what other people think of my perspective.

Thanks for the article. Though I'm an outspoken supporter of the spatial 
paradigm - I do agree that the current implementation in Nautilus isn't 
perfect yet.

My own observations confirm that many users, under windows at least, 
tend to prefer working with one window (maximized) at a time. So I'm not 
advocating a 'many windows on the screen'-approach, but I don't think 
that makes the navigational way a better solution automatically.

A part of the problem is that some people try to use 'spatial' in a 
'navigational' way. Making folder bookmarks or shortcuts to 
often-accessed things, a more spatial approach, can reduce the screen 
clutter significantly.

You note that users organize older stuff hierarchically. But has it 
occured to you that this might be caused by the desire to work more 
efficiently with a navigational file manager? It doesn't _have_ to be 
the 'natural' way of doing things (for some peope that may be the case, 
depending on their "way of thinking"). Furthermore I feel that 
"organizing" files hierarchically is not something the user should be 
bothered with. We're not there yet, but ideally, retrieving users' 
information should be taken care of completely by the computer.

[1] having used a spatial interface for years in the OS/2 Workplace 
Shell, which might deserve a mention in your article :)

regards,

--
Reinout van Schouwen