Re: Proposal for File-Selection Dialog

["Yo 'Ric Dude" <ericmit ix netcom com>]

"Guillermo S. Romero / unnamed / Familia Romero" wrote:

> >Sorted vertically is definately best for lists.
> 
> Long list (with extra info) or single icons? With single icons, it is like
> reading Japanese. Column after column.

You're usually searching an area for a particular name or anicon shape, though.  
Its different than reading plain text...

> >As you say, horizontal scrolling of vertical bars involves a significant
> >break at the end of each column.  Vertical scrolling only has a
> >significant break if the user elects to scroll by more than a line at a
> >time.  Vertical scrolling also makes an easier interface to attach
> >technology to, such as wheeled mice or autoscroll features.
> 
> I think it is more natural to read lines than columns. At least for Latin
> alphabet based languajes.

Research shows that humans seek faster in tabular data using vertical 
sorts than horizontal.  

The theory is that your eye can reject a element after only seeing the first 
letter or two, and skip to the next line, located very near where you're 
already looking.  With horizontal layouts, the element breaks are embedded on 
the same line as the data, and you have to jump across the line discontinuously
as you search for your intended target, thus slowing you down.

> >Another case where horizontal sorting feels right to me is with captioned
> >icons (c.f. various file managers, such as gmc's icon view).  Here you
> >don't have the vertical scanning issues you get with lists.  It still
> >doesn't help with the issue at hand.
> 
> Funny, MS uses vertical scroll (files are placed: left -> right -> next
> line) for small and big icons. The only place where scroll is "changed"
> (files are placed: top -> bottom -> next column) is the list with no extra
> info mode.

With uniformly spaced icons, and descriptive text underneath (as in the large 
icon views), searching may proceed faster horizontally, as you no longer have 
continuous search space in the vertical direction.  With icons labelled on the 
sides (as in the small icon views), searching vertically is still faster.

> GSR

-- ebm
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