RE: New ideas



I didn't like the cobweb/crack concept either, not because of difficulty of
implementation but because it would probably make people think that the file
is corrupt (but thanks for toying around with icons!)  Making a folder seem
fuller or a file seem thicker, IMHO, is a much better idea.

Also, nautilus's "zoom" feature will allow icons to be scaled.  In addition,
at higher scaling levels, the file icons will actually have the first few
lines of it's contents embedded in the icon itself!  Screenshots are
http://nautilus.eazel.com/screenshots.

Gerry Chu
gerrychu@bigfoot.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnome-gui-list-admin@gnome.org
> [mailto:gnome-gui-list-admin@gnome.org]On Behalf Of Ken Fox
> Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 7:47 AM
> To: Brooke and Nathaniel
> Cc: gnome-gui-list@gnome.org
> Subject: Re: New ideas
>
>
> Brooke and Nathaniel wrote:
> > I find this article very intriguing.  The first half or so, about
> > interface hardware, is a little silly, but the GUI portion of it,
> > with the cobwebs and piles, is very interesting.
>
> There seems to be a very stimulating feedback loop between GUI
> design and hardware design. IMHO, the best designs are the ones
> that have appeared when *everything* was on the table.
>
> > I think the author's right in that instead of displaying lots of
> > text, the UI should contain lots of "natural" visual cues that
> > automatically tell you what you're looking at.  If designed and
> > implemented properly, this could make GNOME a *real* winner.
>
> Tog talks about yellowing the icons, adding cobwebs, etc. I've
> played around a bit with this concept and it is extremely hard to
> get right. It can also have side-effects -- yellowed/darkened
> icons become more visible on white backgrounds which is exactly
> the opposite of what happens on gray. Cracks and cobwebs have
> similar problems and also make icons very hard to read.
>
> I implemented last access times by fading the icon into the
> background. This is simple and fast (and ideally could be done by
> the X server during the XCopyArea of the icon to the window).
> The cobweb suggestion was impossible for me to design so that
> people could recognize it. Simple spider webs were sometimes
> seen as connected to the world wide web. (A "web" document!)
>
> File modification times are much harder IMHO. I ended up using
> holes instead of cracks, like a moth-eaten cloth. They could
> become hard to recognize, so I added smudges before moving to
> holes. The smudges are easy to add algorithmically; holes almost
> impossible. Also, holes work best when they are added to the
> edges of the icon -- it changes the icon profile. Since most
> file/folder icons use the standard base shape and add a little
> graphic to the center, it should be possible to design several
> base shapes and not have to invent a hole placing algorithm.
> (I have the luxury/pain of designing all my own icons.)
>
> Document size can be effectively implemented by stacks of
> paper, i.e. instead of just one page showing, add pages
> proportional to the log of the document size. 0-10K is one
> page. 10-100K is two pages. 100-1000K is three pages. 1000+K
> is four. I had to use less than the entire icon area for the
> base page which makes it harder to design application graphics.
>
> Folder size I never figured out, but that's probably because
> I have a front-view folder. Moving to an isometric would allow
> making the folder contents visible.
>
> Adding information to icons is possible, but it requires
> larger icons, which means less display density. I ended up
> with 36x24 icons, which forced me to increase font size to
> preserve the balance between icon weight and text weight.
> About 20% of my users were happy -- they could finally read
> the screen (which surprised me because very few people told me
> this was a problem when I used 16x16 icons -- I guess they
> were used to small displays and were embarrassed to complain).
> Another 20% of my users were unhappy because they saw fewer
> files at a time.
>
> I haven't released the aged/sized icons yet, but my feeling
> is that most of my users will not notice. The small pilot group
> I've been working with is unfortunately self-selecting, and
> they seem to care a lot more about details than my average user.
>
> - Ken
>
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