Re: Initial Thoughts

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

On Fri, 2010-11-05 at 10:35 +0000, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote: 
> Bastien Nocera wrote on 04/11/10 19:32:
> >
> > On Thu, 2010-11-04 at 15:05 +0000, Calum K Pringle wrote:
> >...
> >> *   Another thought I would like to raise is that of application
> >>     specific settings; for example Empathy has instant messaging
> >>     accounts that are used mainly in Empathy but could be used in
> >>     other applications as well, so should the setting exist inside
> >>     empathy or separate like “Messaging and Voip Accounts”. Should
> >>     these be retitled to settings for those applications only, and
> >>     then live inside an “Internet” heading of preferences? This
> >>     then acknowledges the rapidly changing use of social network
> >>     applications, and when people download applications, there is
> >>     opportunity for developers to have a separate preference
> >>     option?
> > 
> > This should all be integrated into "Web Accounts". Did you look at the
> > mockups available at:
> > http://gitorious.org/gnome-design/gnome-design ?
> > 
> > There's already a mockup for the web accounts stuff, just need a person
> > to work on it.
> >...
> 
> Calum's point is that Gnome is used in operating systems that can
> continue to be used three, seven, even ten years after they're released.
> But the sort of Web services that would be covered by a "Web Accounts"
> panel change much more rapidly, so those settings might make more sense
> in more-updateable applications rather than in global settings.
> 
> For example, if you were using an OS with a version of Gnome released
> only three years ago, and the "Web Accounts" panel had existed in Gnome
> back then, possibly it would know about Facebook, but it wouldn't know
> about Twitter. Meanwhile, the version of Gwibber you installed on that
> OS would have its own interface for setting up both, regardless of what
> Gnome did.

Could applications not push account details to the service? Or is that
pure fairy tale? Either way, we need to be considering this panel in a
more holistic fashion. It will be one front end to a service that will
be interacted with in a number of ways, after all.

Wouldn't it be preferable to have our accounts service facilitate
'natural' user behaviour, rather than requiring some kind of set up
phase? I'll paint a picture. Tell me where I've got it wrong. :)

Jane buys a new laptop preinstalled with her favourite GNOMEy distro.
First thing she does is start the chat program and inputs her Google
account details. Then she starts the email program. "Do you want to use
the Google account with the username 'jane gmail com?'", it asks. "Yes
please!", Jane replies. Later, she starts her browser and navigates to
Google Reader. She is presented with something like this:

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Login using username jane gmail com?   [Always] [Once] [Never] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Jane gets a sense that this distro is really helpful. It's taking care
of things for her. She likes it. Two weeks later, she changes her Google
password via a web-page. Her chat, email and  browser settings are
automatically updated, just like magic.

Sounds like a desirable scenario! What, we need to ask, is the need for
a Web Accounts panel (or the equivalent) in this context, though? Is it
that a user might want to delete an account from the system? That they
might need to stop using that account for a particular service? (But
then, aren't applications a better place to do this?) Or that they might
want to use it to change their password? (Why not do this over the web?)

Let's work towards specifying:
 * how the accounts system should work
 * how applications should present and interact with that system
 * a set of use-cases for a Web Accounts panel within the context of
that system

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