usability problems in Open File dialog

[Sak <sak perio unlp edu ar>]

Hi,

I want comment some usability problems that I see
in the Open File dialog in gtk.

First, you know what is a 'dir' (as in 'create dir' button),
but a new user maybe not, Jacob Nielsen, the guru of
interfases and usability always say 'never use abbreviations
in your interface'.

In some places directories are called directories and in
others places are called folders, this is not good, it
must be a directory or a folder, not both (ok, this is
a problem in Gnome, not gtk).


The main function of a open file dialog is open files,
not create directories, rename files or delete files,
actually this buttons are at the same degree (or more)
that open and cancel buttons, they are competing at the 
same level for the user attention, they are interfering 
with the real important buttons (open & cancel), altough 
is good to create a directory, their action must be less 
visible than the action 'open'.

IMO, buttons with only pixmaps and hints will be better,
(for translation too).


When you select a file or a directory with the defaults
colors (blue with yellow around) the letters pqgyj doesn't
look well.

A open file dialog must show all possible files in a
fixed area, here windoze do it a little better, he can
show more files in the same area and the large file
names aren't a problem, unlike gtk. In gtk seeing a
complete large file name is a problem, unless you 
resize the window, wich you can't do much in 640x480.

Also, it would be good a mechanism to change the view,
for example I'm opening a file and want to know the
files dates (or sizes) to see what is the newer file.

Hope this help,

-- 
Who is the General Failure and what f* do reading my disk !?
---
Sergio Kessler