Back on topic Re: Control Center Behavior

[Mark Finlay <sisob eircom net>]

On Thu, 2002-07-18 at 17:54, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> The problem with the shell is that it just doesn't make sense to
> special-case the launching of particular kinds of thing.
> 
> There are standard ways to launch apps:
>  - from Nautilus
>  - from the menus
> 
> if those are bad, they should be fixed. We shouldn't really create the
> special magic launcher for the most-used items. Especially if we're
> creating our custom optimization hack for "most-used by traditional
> linux users" (preferences) instead of "most-used by most desktop
> users" (applications).
> 
> The case where I'd be wrong is if preferences are special or different
> in some way. i.e. I guess you could argue that the "shell" is an
> application, and the control panels are dialogs of that
> application. So then we'd just drop the menu items for preferences.
> 
> But in short we need to identify:
> 
>  - is the problem with using nautilus/menus really a problem 
>    that applies to all apps; if so, it's broken to break 
>    out or special-case preferences
>  - is the problem something specific to preferences, if 
>    so the shell could make sense
> 
> It needs to be identified exactly what is wrong with nautilus/menus
> and what makes preferences a special case. Otherwise you're just
> flailing around on gut feeling, and probably creating instability.

What I see as the problem is that as a usiblity issue the control center
is to difficult for the average user to get a "grip of" - as a hacker
I'm used to complex interfaces so it is only a minor inconvenience to me
- but It is my impression that it would be extremenly confusing and
unintuitive for the average users.

My idea of what would improve it is here:
http://evolvedoo.sourceforge.net/modules/gallery/albums/album05/aag.png

I think the issue lies aroud dividing information into bit size pieces -
ala the Yale Web Style guide - there has to be balance between sections
and pages within the section.

-- 

	 ---------------- [ Mark Finlay ] --------------
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