Re: User feedback on gnome usability

[Christophe Siraut <chris tobald eu org>]

Hey Allan,

> 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?

Oh, I forgot to mention I use gnome 2.30 provided by debian testing.

> > 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.

Ok I suppose this is because I am using an outdated version
of shell (debian testing version is 2.29.0-3). With it I get no
categories but a very long list of alphabetically sorted applications.

> > 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?

Yes I think so. One reason is because it is new to me and I need to
change my habits ;)

About launching applications my now fixed concern was that I have no
applications categories, because of my outdated shell version.

A little fear is the "Applications - Places - System" menu removal. It
is very consistent when I have to coach new gnome users. I am happy
to see that "Applications" and "Places" won't change much.

I understand the system menu is replace with gnome-control-center, now
launched from the upper-right menu. It is Ok, but it takes a little more
time to launch synaptic or printers for instance. I quite liked the
administration and preference menus because you get child elements
immediately. I understand there was a problem with those lists getting
very long. But some good step had been taken when grouping the
"appearance" items for instance.

About applications switching, I think that showing "minified
screenshots" of opened applications (in their respective workspaces) is
less immediate than a window list. (I perfectly agree on not showing it
all the time in order to keep the screen clean as stated in the faq
you mention). The reason for this is that many gtk applications look
quite similar to each other (globally speaking), and we have to
concentrate on some inner details to distinguish them. Maybe a solution
could be to have bigger font for the application name (and opened
document) or put back the application logo. (Sorry if this is already
the case in a recent shell version).

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Chris

> > 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