Re: [Anjuta-list] Usability [Was: question]

[Andy Piper <andy piper freeuk com>]

On 2002.06.03 06:08 Biswapesh Chattopadhyay wrote:

> Naba wrote:
>
> > I think we need to do some sort of USABILITY testing/survey.
>
> Exactly - as I said a week or two back

And I said, ooooh, around the time of the 0.1.9 release, 
actually. Still, at least we've actually begun to reorganise the 
menus and have even mentioned changing the preferences. 
> It seems that some of our best features are hidden
> away behind obscure menu items, context menus and badly worded
> text :-(

Well, make some suggestions. One of my ongoing tasks is to 
improve the menu items and message strings to make them more 
friendly.

> 1) People get confused when the windows are undocked by
> default. A simple solution would be to make docked windows
> the default.

Agreed.

> 2) The text 'Dock/Undock' makes little sense to most people.
> Solution: Make it 'Dock Window' when the window is undocked
> and 'Undock Window' when the window is docked.

This involves some detection code but I think it is an excellent 
idea as well.

> 1) The 'Detach Current Document' is difficult to find since it
> makes no sense under the Format menu (in fact, the whole
> 'Format'menu makes little sense to me but that's a different 
> issue).
> It should be in the 'View' menu and/or have a context menu
> option for the document between 'Find Usage' and 'Close'.

Well now, that is one of the changes in my bunch of patches - at 
least, to change the message text for the Detach Current 
Document item, if not to move it. Ah no actually I just did that 
recently, but I need to update it again.

Apart from that one being out of place, I actually think the 
rest of the Format menu is fine now.

> 2) The CVS menu has no context in the File Manager window.
> The first seven options in the CVS menu should be available
> (and activated/deactivated accordingly) in the file browser

As a submenu of the context menu probably.

> Also, people expect the version number to be
> shown after the file name in the file browser if CVS is
> activated.

Nice idea. Have a go at it! :-)

> 3) People get confused between the 'Edit' and 'View' options in
> the project and file browsers. They should be made more 
> explicit,
> like 'View in Gedit..'. This would mean creating the context 
> menus
> dynamically, but we can live with that I think.

Agreed. I really hate the way it is at the moment.

> 5) Virtually nobody knows how easy it is to change the
> accelerator key for a menu item (by focussing on the menu
> item and pressing the key combination you want). This
> information should be easily accessible.

It's a GNOME feature of course - so GNOME's ease-of-use isn't 
obvious enough :-)

> Maybe, we can have a menu option 'Customize key bindings',
> which will simply popup a dialog and tell the user to do this ?

Very nice idea, it's quick and simple.

> 6) Anyone using the bookmark menu ? People are thoroughly
> confused about it (including me). What is it supposed to do ?

This is a feature inherited from Scintilla IIRC.

> Another option is to open a meta bug in SF 'Anjuta Usability'
> which can double as a discussion forum as well ?

I'll look at doing this in the next day or so.

> Also, is there any opposition to a 'Tip for the day' feature.
> It's MSism for sure, an I personally always disable it

I'm in two minds about it. Apps such as KDevelop and Gimp have 
it. I don't think we need to worry about it when we have thirty 
open bugs and Anjuta1 is at the end of its life.

Andy

--
Andy Piper - Farnborough, Hampshire (UK)
andy piper freeuk com
http://www.andypiper.co.uk/