Re: Recently used applications

[John McCutchan <ttb tentacle dhs org>]

On Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 06:28:32PM +0000, Calum Benson wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-10-29 at 01:50, John McCutchan wrote:
> 
> > Yes, I switched over some people from Windows XP to gnome 2 (RedHat 8)
> > And a repeated comment, was where are the list of my recent applications?
> > People like this feature, most people would use Word, Internet Explorer,
> > Excel and Windows Media player all the time, so they would always be in
> > that list. So for them it was a two click process instead of a one click
> > scan list (That as a non power user you are unfamiliar with and don't
> > care to get familiar with), click. 
> 
> > A comment I got was "I hate having to search through the menus just to find 
> > my movie player".
> 
> Sounds like you're in a great position to gather some usability data for
> us here :)  Some things it would be useful to find out:
> 
> - Why didn't those users create shortcuts for those application in XP's
> shortcut bar, which would have allowed them to launch them with a single
> click rather than two or more?

Okay, I asked one: Here is how it went:

Q: "Why didn't you just move your most frequently used applications
to the shortcut bar"

A: "I don't know how"

After showing how

A: "I don't like them their because it takes up space from my
background buttons, I like to keep everything running so I use alot of 
space with background buttons."

background buttons meaning the list of running programs.

Q: "Why do you find it difficult to find your programs in gnome?"

A: "There is to much junk in the menus"

Q: "The windows start menu has much more junk then gnomes"

A: "Yeah, but in windows I had all my programs in the most frequently run
list, and if it wasn't their, then it was in a background button. So only
rarely I would have to go into the junky menu and search for something"

I think that the windows xp start menu is decent. Having most frequently
run programs and the ability to pin certain programs to a short list of
6 at the top of the list and then a seperate button to get the full
list of applications is much easier to use from a novice's point of view.

Picture: http://www.themedepot.org/showzoomedframe.php4?id=364

In the picture the most frequently used programs is on the left, and then
the contents of the action menu is on the right. Replacing the
Applications / Actions menu with something like this I think would increase
usability.

> 
> - Similarly, why would they prefer a recent applications menu in GNOME
> over the ability to create a launcher on the panel?

Because they don't know how to. They have no idea what a launcher is
or how to create it. Also in Windows XP it isn't recent applications
its most frequently used.

> 
> Cheeri,
> Calum.
> 
> -- 
> CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
> mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Group
> http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771
> 
> Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems
> 
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