Re: [Usability]Re: Toolbar editor

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

On Wed, 2003-03-26 at 17:24, Arnaud Charlet wrote:

> Right, and this is why I find it "funny" at best, or "misguided" at worst
> when each time people ask about MDI, then someone on a gtk list answers
> that MDI are "bad". Although this may be true in many cases, it is by
> no means an absolute rules.

Well, this is a whole separate discussion :)  But I think that's also
caused by different interpretations of what "MDI" actually means... when
I use it I mean Microsoft's definition (all documents have their own
window frame, and when you close them all you're still left with a big
grey empty window with a menubar), rather than the one-document-per-tab
thing like gedit uses.  Although I know the HIG dislikes both.

I also think there's some misunderstanding about the HIG's disapproval
of MDI.  As I understand it, it's not because the user shouldn't be able
to have all their documents show up in different tabs in the same window
if they want to.  It's because the application shouldn't force that
presentation on them-- the window manager should control the
presentation and navigation between multiple documents in the same
application instead.  (Obviously, though, metacity doesn't actually
support a tabbed view of multiple windows at this time, and who knows if
it ever will...)

> Sure, in the case of your needs and of this particular software, you're
> saying this feature is almost useless, that's fine.

Not just that, I'm also saying that in ten years of usability tests and
visiting customers, I've barely seen anyone customize their toolbar in
any application that supports it, beyond switching entire toolbars on or
off.  (Although admittedly that's because in some environments, users
are just not allowed to customise things, and/or because the application
has already been globally customised by the sysadmin to meet the needs
of those users).

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems