Re: User feedback on gnome usability

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Hey Chris,

Christophe Siraut wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am new to gnome list and have not browsed its archive. Forgive me if
> things I mention have already been discussed. Here is a little feedback
> from a daily gnome user.

Welcome!

> Yesterday I tried once again to replace
> metacity and panel with gnome-shell.

Great to hear - how did you install GNOME Shell?

> Today I do not, as I feel less
> productive with shell.

Sorry to hear that. I think there are a couple of questions that we need
to ask here: what are the right measures of productivity? Is
productivity the only way that we should be judging the shell? It might
*feel* less productive when that isn't the case, for instance, and we
need to consider productivity alongside user experience.

> Here are two choices I do not understand in
> gnome 3.
>
> How do we launch applications?
> 
> In gnome 2, using mouse only, we can launch applications through
> structured and intuitive menus. In gnome 3, only recent applications
> are launchable with the mouse. One must know the names for the
> remaining applications, and type in the first letters using keyboard.

I don't understand you here... you can launch any app with a mouse in
GNOME Shell. And they're currently grouped into categories.

> How do we switch application? vs How do we switch workspace?
> 
> Switching workspace is ignored by many people. This is not a problem to
> me. In gnome 2 switching workspace can be triggered by 1 (mouse)
> actions: clicking in the applet. In gnome 3 a lot of attention is put
> on adding/removing workspaces, on moving windows from one workspace to
> another. Do people change their applications from one workspace to
> another so often? (Is it relevant to have these not so useful tasks
> executed manually?)

I'm with you on this one - workspaces should be an optional extra for
those who like to use them. (Doesn't mean they shouldn't be good
though.) Do you think that workspaces in the shell have impaired
application launching and switching somehow?

> I would rather focus on launching/unhiding
> applications consistently (by application generic names for example,
> like gnome-do does it launching "text-editor" instead of "gedit"),

I certainly think that that makes sense for core applications and
utilities, and I thought that the kind of naming that you're describing
was the plan for GNOME 3 (not sure quite how gedit fits in here). Might
be that you have to wait to install the full new release to see how this
works out.

> and
> maybe have them presented in an easy way for showing windows not
> currently visible to the user. Switching Application in gnome 3 (by
> clicking on the application screenshot resized in its workspace) is
> less intuitive to me than having some sort of window-list. (I like
> window-picker-applet for instance).

See: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/Design/FAQ

> I think having a workspace approach
> is less universal than a application-centric one.

GNOME Shell is designed to have an application-centric model with
optional workspaces. I don't think it's an either/or situation.

Best,

Allan
-- 
Blog: http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/
IRC: aday on irc.gnome.org