Re: UI changes for control-center

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

Adding descriptions for the benefit of people who don't want
to sift through bugzilla or aren't comfortable reading patches.

On Sun, 2009-08-23 at 08:44 +0200, Frederic Peters wrote:
> William Jon McCann wrote:
> 
> > There are a few changes we'd like to make to the control center before
> > the string freeze.  Some of these involve UI changes as well.  So,
> > according to http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointTwentyseven we need
> > approval.
> > 
> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323323

On the Appearance preferences, adds link "Get more themes online"
to the Theme tab, and adds link "Get more backgrounds online" to
the Background tab.  These point to art.gnome.org.  OK by me.

> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=591375

Puts a nice decoration on slideshow background images.  See the
screenshot from Matthias:

http://bugzilla-attachments.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=140666

I didn't even know we have slideshow backgrounds.  The User
Guide doesn't even mention these anyway.  No reason to block
something that makes an already undocumented feature more
intuitive.

> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=592510

On the Background tab, makes the Add and Remove buttons the
same size.  I'm not quibbling over these kinds of changes.

> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=592756

This proposes removing the Interface tab.  This removes from
the user the options to show icons in menus, enable editable
menu shortcut keys, and change the toolbar button label style.

> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=592759

This proposes removing the Window Preferences tool.  This
removes from the ability to use point-to-focus, change the
titlebar double-click action, and change the window movement
key.

> > So, how about it?  I promise they make the user experience better.
> 
> I'll look at them later today (or tomorrow), CC'ing the documentation
> list for eventual input, and the translators for possible string
> changes.

The first three are fine by me.  The last two are much more
substantive and would require documentation work.

On a personal level, I'm not fond of making window shading
even more difficult to find.

How do you know that these make the user experience better?
Do you have any data on how many users use these features?

I know of at least one piece of commercial software that
uses Alt+click for its own purposes.  They have to instruct
GNOME users to change the window movement key to use that
feature.  You'll be making their troubleshooting docs harder.

I'm not saying we need to include every configuration option
under the sun.  But you need some sort of criteria for deciding
whether to remove something.  And it really seems like people
are using "I don't use it" as their sole criterion, which just
isn't good enough.

--
Shaun