Re: [Nautilus-list] Nautilus user testing at MIT

[textshell t-online de]

Well I don't think this's all so easy. I think the best thing would be
if GNOME would provie a general way to express in which state an
Application is and leave it to the preferences of the user what is done
to show this states! But i do see a problem here, with bonobo on it's
way to our desktops it isn't anymore an window/application that is in
some state, but it may be just an component inside what the user sees as
_one_ application.

<RANT>I always get the feeling in this list that most of the members of
this list don't really know much about the inner-workings of
gnome</RANT>

One other thing about indicating states of applications(well really
processes): Don't force anything at the users, this list show how
different humans are so they'll need choice and the infrastructure to
make these choises possible.


Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> 
> Le sam, 06 jan 2001 01:43:47, Gerry Chu a écrit :
> > > cursor over a window means:
> > >     - the window is listening to me
> > >     - the cursor tells me about that window
> > >
> > >
> > > Mind you, I wouldn't want to use the cursor for every
> > possible
> > > interesting app state, just to tell the difference
> > between "I'm ready
> > > and waiting for input" vs. "Hold on, I'll be with you
> > shortly".
> >
> > I would suspect that a lot of people use large maximized
> > windows instead of
> > the more efficient restored windows.  If that is the case,
> > I have a hunch
> > that a wait cursor over a window would be generalized to
> > mean to the user
> > that the entire computer is unresponsive and "thinking",
> > since the window
> > takes up 99% of the screen area.  And I'm not sure if
> > people get the idea
> > that one app can be "thinking" while another is
> > responsive, they would
> > probably think that the whole computer is thinking.
> 
> Yes, the whole cursor-form state-indicator system can only
> be confusing IMHO. Not a lot of the users that need this
> would be able to correctly correlate the cursor form with
> one window.
> 
> > Personally, I would go with the titlebar approach.  The
> > taskbar way would
> > not take up any more space, though, it would just use the
> > space reserved for
> > the icon, probably.  The downside of the taskbar way is
> > that it is difficult
> > to correlate windows with taskbar items.
> 
> However it might be necessary for minimized windows (and
> since the title is already repeated in the title bar and the
> task bar, why not another indicator ?). In fact, is such a
> mechanism could be put into place, I'd want it to also show
> up in the WM window list.
> 
> > To put things into perspective, there are very few
> > programs that are
> > inresponsive to user input for noticible periods of time
> > that do not already
> > have other means of indicating state, eg, you can see some
> > programs build
> > their ui on startup, at that time, the program is
> > obviously not ready for use.
> 
> Well, if it were sufficient the whole discussion on cursor
> forms would not restart every few months. And anyway, I much
> prefer a generic feedback mechanism than let every app
> devise its own way of doing it. Let guis stay consistent.
> 
> --
> Nicolas
> 
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