Re: Call for constructive user criticism.

[Ben Frantzdale <frantzdb admin arhs net>]

On Mon, 2 Aug 1999, John Kodis wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 01, 1999 at 01:18:48PM -0500, Miguel de Icaza wrote:
> 
> >    1. A team of *users* that would tell us what they would like to see
> >       in GNOME:
> > 
> >       a. To make the interface easier. 
> >       b. To make it more intuitive to people.
> 
> I've been playing with the panel for the past few weeks, and have
> found a few rough edges that could probably be smoothed out pretty
> quickly:
> 
>   + It's needlessly difficult to adjust the type, location, and size
>     of a panel.  There's one menu item for conversion between edge and
>     corner panels, another configuration page to change from
>     horizontal to vertical and to pick a corner, and yet another
>     configuration page to pick a panel size.
> 
>     At the least, these adjustments could be placed on the same page.
>     Even better, this page could have a diagram showing four edge
>     panels and eight corner panels, and the panel type could be
>     changed by clicking on the desired panel type in the diagram.
>     Better still would be some means of reconfiguring the panel by
>     dragging it to the desired edge or corner.


Middle drag the panel :-)

--Ben

> 
>   + I don't see any reason why the panel has to be glued to an edge.
>     I can easily envision a screen layout that has two edge panels,
>     one below the other, along the top of the screen.  For example,
>     the top panel could be devoted to applets, while the lower panel
>     could be devoted to holding iconized applications.
> 
>   + It would be handy to be able to configure a panel, and save this
>     panel configuration for future use.  The panel control menu would
>     have to get several new entries: "New", Open...", and "Save
>     as...", similar to a document-oriented application.  "New" would
>     create a default panel, either empty or with a selection of common
>     applets pre-installed.
> 
>   + There are some fun things that could be done with "greedy
>     applets" -- applets that expand to occupy all vacant space in a
>     panel.  Imagine a horizontal edge panel with a few applets on the
>     left, a few iconized apps on the right, and a lot of vacant space
>     between.  Now imagine a "greedy" version of the fish applet, which
>     allows Wanda to swim back and forth over this entire stretch of
>     the panel, rather than being confined to a tiny square area.
>     Cool, huh?
> 
>   + There are quite a few clock applets.  This is probably a good
>     thing, as peoples taste in clocks will vary widely (BTW, I'd like
>     one that looks just like xclock, but can't find one that I like).
>     However, there are so many clock applets that it's hard to spot
>     the non-clock applets in the Utility menu.  I'd suggest either a
>     separate "Clocks" applet menu item, or else a grand unified clock
>     application that can select and launch any of the simple clock
>     applets. 
> 
> 
> >    2. A team coordinator that would compile and maintain all of these
> >       ideas and comments.  He would need to provide a document on the
> >       web to allow the developers to address those usability issues.
> 
> Congratulations to our new team coordinator.  Thanks for stepping up
> to the task.  I'd suggest that one of your first executive decisions
> should be picking the mailing list to carry these discussions.  Both
> gnome-list and gnome-gui-list seem appropriate, but it would probably
> be best to appoint one or the other as the official home of this thread.
> 
> -- John Kodis.
> 
> 
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