Re: Recently used applications

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

On Wed, 2002-10-30 at 00:27, John McCutchan wrote:

> 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.

Users never cease to amaze me :)  You say these are novice users, yet
they apparently know how to 'pin' programs to the list so they always
appear... I've been using XP for a year and never knew you could do that
:)  I assume (since I'm not running it right now) that this is a feature
that's only available by right clicking on an item in the Apps list? 
Did you show them how to do this or did they figure it out for
themselves?

> > - 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.

Sure, I appreciate that, but I'm guessing most of them had no idea how
to pin programs to their apps list either until somebody told them.
 
> Also in Windows XP it isn't recent applications its most frequently used.

So it is... that's something else I'd never noticed before. That would
certainly explain why it never seems to contain the app I'm looking for
half the time :)

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