Re: UI Rantings [was: Re: gmc and file-selection mockups]

["James M. Cape" <jcape jcinteractive com>]

sungod wrote:
> 
> "James M. Cape" wrote:
> 
> > IMO, the open/save dialogs are only lacking an icon for filetype, an
> > easy sort method, and perhaps a carryover of the gnome dialog icons.
> > Period. It works cleanly and efficiently *right now*. Making Gnome do
> > all the useless interface crap that Microsoft has seen fit to bloat
> > their programs with should never be a goal. Ever. And unfortunately for
> > Microsoft, most of that interface crap comes from Windows' reuse of that
> > godawful Explorer object.
> >      Looking over some of the other suggestions, I came accross Double
> > Right Clicking. Double Right Clicking?!?!?!? New users have a hard
> > enough time dealing with double left clicking, why complicate the
> > procedure needlessly. Keyboard shortcuts are the Right Way to do this
> >      As for the consistency problem, why not store all the keyboard
> > shortcuts in *one* place. That way, all the Open commands have the same
> > shortcut, all the New commands have the same shortcut, all the
> > Properties commands have the same shortcut, etc., etc., etc.
> 
> james, glad to see your input on the list. looks like you have some good
> ideas about user interface design but would like to see some of them
> developed fully and examples or code to clarify.

Ummm, I would like to see or you would like to see? I'm not a C
programmer (yet), so aside from very simple things (like control
placement, pixmap editing, etc), I wouldn't be very useful. But, this is
one of those cases where I disagree with Linus' "Show me the code"
philosophy, for the simple fact that most people that know design don't
program in C.

> > Since I have started using Linux, I am constantly amazed by the general
> > level of suggestions about the UI of Gnome/X/whatever. In the end, it
> > amounts to "In Windows 95, I can do this one kewl thing (which violates
> > quite a few basic UI principles and should never have been included in
> > the first place). In Gnome/X/whatever, I can't do that, so
> > Gnome/X/whatever should change." This "solution" is patently wrong.
> 
> agreed.
> 
> > Gnome is not Windows.
> 
> agreed.
> 
> > Gnome shouldn't try to emmulate Windows.
> 
> agreed.
> 
> > The
> > reason for this is simple: The Windows UI is a pathetic attempt at
> > usability.
> 
> disagreed. some of it is good. some of it is bad. i don't think
> dismissing a suggestion merely on the basis that "windows does it that
> way" is any better than _implementing_ such a feature for the same
> reason.

What I was getting at was that Windows shouldn't be emmulated because it
isn't the best-designed UI. I didn't mean not doing something a certain
way because Windows does it a certain way, but rather taking a really
close look at features in Windows that should be implemented because
they tend to be poorly done (or not well thought out). For example,
desktop icons. This is a feature of Windows. Depending on which window
manager you use, this is either a tossup or a bad idea. I use Window
Maker -- with Window Maker it's bad, because it's completely
contradictory to the UI of Window Maker. Someone else may use E -- with
E it's a tossup, because E isn't very decided with what it puts on the
desktop. You get the idea. This is an example of a Windows feature that
was implemented (AFAICT) just because it's a Windows feature.

(I wrote the above paragraph before noticing the ongoing thread on the
subject -- leave the desktop icons bit to that thread)

> i'd urge you to ignore windows altogether when designing the user
> interface. use it for inspiration, sure, but distance yourself from
> outside influences when writing code for gnome. let usability testing
> and proven design rules take priority over how "other guys" do it.

Absolutely.

> [much more agreed upon and deleted]
> 
> > My personal UI Rules:
> 
> check out the apple human interface guidelines book or ben shneiderman's
> eight golden rules of hci design for tested and proven design
> fundamentals which should imo be adhered to like glue. if you have
> problems finding either, check out my summary and grouping in the
> archive for this list. i originally posted the comparison for inclusion
> in the style guide; if demand still warrants, i have more material for
> contribution as well.
> --
>  ______(sungod)_____________________________________
> | To ensure privacy and data integrity this message |
> | has been encrypted by using dual rounds of ROT-13 |
>  ---------------------------(sungod@atdot.org)------

I checked those out a long long long long long time ago, but brushing up
couldn't hurt. :-)

    Jim Cape
    http://www.jcinteractive.com

    "All animals are equal, some animals
     are more equal than others."
         -- George Orwell, Animal Farm