Re: first time user experiences

[Jeremy Katz <katzj redhat com>]

On Tue, 2001-12-18 at 23:59, seth vidal wrote:
> > seth vidal <skvidal phy duke edu> writes: 
> > > 1. evolution does "odd" things when you setup an imap server for your
> > > mail via their mail setup druid. You get this error about evo not being
> > > able to make a shortcut b/c you haven't typed in your password, of
> > > course you have never been given the option to type in a password so..
> > > Then once in evo the only way to see the imap server in your list of
> > > folders is to exit and reload it. - this is TERRIBLY counterintuitive to
> > > a user who has just setup that server.
> > 
> > Let's get this one in bugzilla.ximian.com against evo, unless Jeremy
> > thinks it's something we broke in our package.
> 
> its there. (last I checked at least - it had already been reported)

Good :-)

> > > 3. It might be friendlier to have the default icon size for the menus be
> > > larger. As well the default font in the terminal should probably be 1.
> > > bigger 2. bolder - its almost painfully hard to read at times.
> > 
> > Bigger font results in something that won't fit in 800x600 and people
> > complain about it - I've tried putting in that change before. Bolder
> > isn't really possible without just using the bold variant - we don't
> > have much flexibility in the fonts that come with X. The bold variants
> > are too bold (and then bold text isn't visible).
> 
> is 800x600 the standard?
> if so then why are the default panels so big?

It's not the standard but you don't want to have to use bizarre
preferences that are hidden and easy to completely screw up to get a
usable terminal at 800x600.  The panel at least is relatively intuitive
to change the size of.

> one more thing is the new gnome-terminal going to include a "I just want
> to have THIS terminal in THIS font RIGHT now, not for all the new
> terminals, forever" option? That has been a complaint of users (and of
> my own).

Definitely.  I'm pretty sure Havoc will agree here as it seems to be one
of the ideas behind profterm (the terminal program he's writing for
gnome2)

> > > 5. Galeon should DEFINITELY supplant mozilla as the default web browser
> > > on the panel. - the widget set is consistent and makes sense.
> > 
> > I think native widgets just aren't a key thing for average users
> > trying to get work done. It's more important to power users. 
> > Galeon also has some power user features highly visible in the menus, 
> > such as stuff about cookies and image animation and JavaScript.
> > And I think the tabs are a power user feature.
> 
> mozilla has tabs now(since 0.9.5 iirc). its no different in that regard.

The tabs are a little less easy to potentially get to by accident though
being hidden down inside a submenu.  With galeon, it just sort of jumps
out at you.  

> woah woah woah.
> I'm not talking about people who want to set up a server. I'm talking
> about USERS. I'm a sysadmin. I manage a bunch of machines for people who
> don't know the os from a hole in the ground. They will NEVER be setting
> up web servers or mail servers. 

And the hard part is making a desktop that works for both of these tasks
which have two relatively independent sets of needs.

Cheers,

Jeremy