Re: Behavior of Minimizing Windows Violates Mental Model

[Adam Williamson <awilliam redhat com>]

On Mon, 2010-11-15 at 23:24 +0800, Allan Caeg wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> Just wanted to share a personal experience with GNOME Shell. One of
> its new and unique attributes is not having the window list or any
> sort of persistent widget that shows running apps or opened windows.
> This has benefits, in theory, like helping the user focus on the
> foreground task. 
> 
> 
> It's just worth noting that one of its potential downsides is it
> violates the user's mental model, which makes it undesirable, even if
> it *may* help increase productivity. With a window list, it's clear to
> the user where the window goes when it's minimized and how to show it
> again. In GNOME Shell, the only clear way to tell if a window is
> minimized is to check if it can't be seen in the workspace, but it's
> shown in the Overview or Window Switcher (alt+tab). Teling which
> windows are minimized or not may not have real benefits, but it may be
> too disorienting for users.

I agree - I rarely minimize windows so it's not really an issue for me,
but when I have done it in GNOME shell (usually accidentally), it does
feel a little odd.
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Fedora Talk: adamwill AT fedoraproject DOT org
http://www.happyassassin.net