Re: Recently used applications

[John McCutchan <ttb tentacle dhs org>]

On Wed, Oct 30, 2002 at 11:13:21AM +0000, Calum Benson wrote:
> 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?

I showed them how to do it. They would have never noticed.

> 
> > > - 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.

No they didn't know how to do until I told them. But they still found
the menu very usefull, I don't think any of them actually use the pin
feature.

>  
> > 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 :)

But for users that only use galeon, gnumeric and abiword it will always
contain the app they are looking for.

> 
> 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
> 
>