Reflections on Gnome from longtime GUI User..

[Justin Sher <justin ndst com>]

Greetings All, 
	Loads and loads of good comments on the GUIS of the current gnome
apps follow but first a paragraph on my experience with computers and
Linux. 
	I've been using linux for about 2 1/2 years and full time for
about the last three months.  Where before I was a part time Linux user, I
have finally, thanks largely to the development of KDE, and StarOffice,
been able to not feel like I was wasting time the night before a project
was due fiddling around with LaTex or some other arcane Linux tool meant
for mathematicians and physicists and not business majors.  Don't get me
wrong, I can use the shell and emacs but they make some but not all tasks
more laborious than they should be.  This experience of being able to use
Linux full-time has been delightful and I enjoy being Microsoft free! Now
with the development of Gnome I can't wait to be completely GNU!
	Well I may write some gnome software in the future. Having used
KDE and Windows+Mac+OS/2 GUI's for 10 years however, and being great at
criticizing things I don't like and prasing those I do, I thought I could
be of help to this project by throwing in my two cents worth every once
and a while concerning the current status of gnome, particularly the GUI.
So here goes (Ok programmers time to get in your bunkers) : ) 
	
gpanel- Looks pretty good.  
	What's this thing over on the right hand side?  Some sort of biff? 
It's a little big.. Maybe you could fit four of those things in neatly on
the right hand side. They could be in a grid or something.  That would be
cool. BTW, these things need tool tips! 
	The sliding animation is totally gratuitous and gets very dull and
aggravating about the second or third time I see it.  At least have it
turned off by default.  I like How KDE does it when the panel is minimized
and they just have those two little icons in the corner that let you
manage everything.  BTW where is the virtual desktop manager? 
	The clock is cool. Maybe you might want to make it have some sort
of theme in the future.  Not super neccessary though. 
	The "Start" menu should probably have a better icon than just a
foot?  I know it's the gnome motif but....Ahh. It's sooo prehistoric.  The
menu works well, I like the add folders to the toolbar!  I like how
windows go under the panel when dragged towards it, maybe the window
manager should limit the dragging so they can't even get that far... 

G-Mix Getting there...
	Needs a more compact interface preferably with pictures to
identify what these sources represent, maybe with tooltips. Does this
thing automatically detect the capabilites of one's mixer yet? 

Gnome-Mines. Getting There...
	Needs a help menu I think.. BTW , the help menu should be over on
the far right hand side.. I know this is a Windows95ism but it's just
easier for me to know that file's on my left and help is on the far right
without having to run my eyes over the rest of the menubar. 

Same-Gnome. Some small details..
	Pretty much looks complete...Help menu on the right would be an
added bonus, with some sort of HTML walk through.  I know this is probably
coming in the next version. 

Phaser Chess.  Not yet in beta I guess...

Gimp. Lovely, Gorgeous!
	The gimp is one of the best linux apps out there.  I just wish it
would offer an alternative to the hierarchical menu of doom it uses to do
everything.  I wouldn't mind a floating menu bar that acted as sort of a
meta window manager.  A good model for this is Symantec Cafe on Windows95. 
It doesn't use MDI but it gets the same effect by controlling the
placement of windows.  Gimp could also use some sort of a help system too.
Congrats to the gimp people. 

Gnome Network Utilities. Works pretty well..Needs Minor enhancements.
	Could use a help system.  It should also be able to find apps it
needs if they are not in the default locations (for instance it did not
find my traceroute). Perhaps there could be a "find" widget?  I love how
Windows95 resolves broken application links.  This would be a cool feature
for gnome making it much easier for newbies to not get stuck. 

Background Properties--Great!
	I love previews! Tabbed dialog boxes are also great for setting up
a lot of different preferences! 

Keyboard and Mouse Properties--Great!
	Wow!  Good job.  These little apps really do the job.  Now if you
could get them hooked into some sort of global systems settings manager..

Gnome Search-Needs some interface enhancements
	First: Don't put the "Access command line" function there. If
people wanted to use the command line they would use a shell window.
Second.. Have a little searching icon that does some sort of animation ala
netscape while the app is looking for files. I never got to see the
results dialog but it should link to the file manager or something like
that.

Talk--I have no clue how this works
	Having no clue how something works or where to begin when
launching an app means that it needs to have a little more user interface
such as a link to a help system, some menus, dialog box headings in plain
english, popup menus, etc. Thanks :) . 

CroMagnon- Looking good - needs some interface changes
	Ok lots of little things.  I think the help menu should be right
justified (yeah yeah).  The buttons on the toolbar are good but I think it
should not have an exit button as everyone knows that exit is in the file
menu and this just "clutters" the user interface.  Also the edit menu
should be almost abolished and have one entries under the file menu, "New
Entry".This is because New is usually under the file menu.  and a
coresponding "Clear" entry under the edit menu to remove entries (Along
with cut copy and paste).  The crontab entry should be edited by double
clicking on it! 
	Selecting New Entry should bring up a menu that has six horizontal
radio buttons at the top that say "Inter Hourly", "Hourly", "Daily",
"Weekly", "Monthly", "Yearly".  When the radio buttons are clicked the
interface below should switch to the options for that mode.  This is how
my 200lx's scheduler works and it's fantastic! 

Notepad- Looking Good
	Umm All I can say is to make the default window a little bigger on
entry and maybe have some sort of tool bar and a right justifed help menu
(yeah yeah).  Why have a close menu if you can only open one file at a
time?  Doesn't the act of opening another file automatically close the
current one? 

GTimeTracker-  The best gnome app so far!
	Good user interface design!  The only things I would change are to
have little up and down arrows next to the times in the properties window. 
Also you should have all your buttons right justified instead of spread
out across the window which looks kind of funny.  The help system looks
really well done! 

Genius - Nice!
	Looks pretty good.  One thing though.  Try to say something like
"bad equation" instead of "Parse Error". Also it would be nice if you made
the results wrap as notepad and emacs do.  Also I think that the options
should be in a separate dialog or at least move the whole thing into a
tabbed dialog box with options being on one page and the calculator on the
other.  I feel that unless there is some sort of real time feedback you
don't need to see both the options and the calculator at the same time and
it just takes up valuable screen real estate.

Also another comment for everyone: Add Color.  It makes your app so much
easier to look at!

General Comments
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
	Just a couple general comments before I wrap up.  I really can't
wait till Gnome gets printing as even though printing isn't that sexy it's
extremely useful for people who have to communicate with the hard copy
world who like paper better than email attachments.  If you guys can
implement graphics drag and drop between applications people will love
gnome too as this is something that has been rare in the Linux GUI world
but is extremely usefull and almost taken for granted in the commercial
operating systems world.  Also make sure that the APIs are well
documented, possibly with some sort of autodocumentation tool as having
programmed on Unix, Windows and Mac, the thing I like about programming
most on other platforms is their extensive online documentation.  MS VC++
is a beautiful example of this.  Also don't give too short shrift to the
Windows 95 UI.  These guys spend lots of money on usability lab studies
and I think they've done a fairly decent job with it (with a few notable
exceptions).  Let's take advantage of there victory over Apple in the
patentability of "look and feel" lawsuit and make use of their findings in
this area. 

Guerrilla Usability Lab for Gnome
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
	Go out and get someone who just barely knows how to use a computer
and sit them down in front of your computer with your gnome app and see if
they can figure it out.  See where they get stuck and find out how you can
make it easier for them!  Maybe we should setup some sort of voting web
page were people can express their likes and dislikes for certain user
interface elements. 

Well so long for now.  You guys are doing some great work!


|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Justin Sher         |  "No appeal to any historical or empirical     |
| Programmer/Analyst  |   consideration can discover any fault in the  |
| NDST Communications |   proposition that men aim purposefully at     | 
| email:	      |	  certain chosen ends." 		       |
|  justin@ndst.com    |            -Ludwig Von Mises                   |
|                     | 	         "Human Action"                |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|