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

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

"Jesse D. Sightler" wrote:
> 
> "James M. Cape" wrote:
> 
> > > Ok, then should there be context sensitive menu's associated with files
> > > at all?
> >
> > From the Open/Save Dialogs? Not in my opinion. A redesign of them is
> > inevitable to deal with things like sort methods, date/time displays,
> > etc. I just want to make sure it doesn't get blown way out of
> > proportion. :-)
> 
> Ok, so then do you believe that open/save dialogs should have an icon
> view?  Because if they do, I would imagine that many users will find the
> lack of context menus counterintuitive.

Only users coming from Windows who have discovered the Right Click. I
bet many of them think that double-clicking on the titlebar to shade the
window is counter intuitive as well. It's only counter-intuitive if you
are used to something else.

> > As for the "what makes our philosophies differ" question, I believe that
> > your design ideas stem from a "what does the uber-advanced user want"
> > perspective, whereas mine stem from the "only seven items at a time so
> > as not to confuse the new users" camp. Different approaches to the same
> > problem. Both solve them, it's just a matter of who is the program
> > designed for.
> 
> Then how do you propose that we provide for the needs of both users?
> --
> ---------------
> Jesse D. Sightler
> http://www3.pair.com/jsight/

I already said. Have a "File Manager" button. It would take no longer to
load that than having the Gmc file selection widget be part of the Open
Dialog, just an extra click.

An alternative to that would be to have a preference for this "Use File
Manager for File Dialogs" or what have you, where selecting it would
have the Dialogs use the Gmc widget, whereas not selecting it would have
it use the normal list mode. However, I am loath to have extra
preferences if they aren't absolutely necessary, and this one definately
falls into that category.

    Jim Cape
    http://www.jcinteractive.com

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