Re: Menubar (and Empty Default Desktop) Proposals for GNOME 2.10

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinouts gnome org>]

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004, Mike Hearn wrote:

> Well, why is that? Do you have any evidence (anecdotal is fine ;) that
> this increases usability?

Well, the desktop for me is a place to put information that I want to 
have quick access to. A launcher isn't a form of information, it's 
something intangible that starts a program when activated. But to 
activate it on the desktop you have to double click it, whereas on the 
panel a single click suffices. (Yes, I also think we should switch to 
single click everything, but that's another discussion.) In short, 
mingling launchers and documents brings "semantic confusion".

The Ravasio et al. paper Nigel linked to seems to somewhat support this 
position, since it says users tend to see the desktop as a temporary 
storage area for working information.

More evidence than that I can't give, I'm afraid. :-)

regards,

--
Reinout van Schouwen

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