Re: [Nautilus-list] Tree View

[Ben FrantzDale <bfrantzdale hmc edu>]

> Hi Ty,
> 
> I'd like to take a moment to address your points as a Human Interface
> designer who has indeed done user testing in this area.
> 
> 
> > 1. the tree view is be definition a navigation gui
> > component.  including files in the tree view doesn't
> > make any sense.  if it did, user testing would have
> > told use so years ago.  and by your thoughts gui
> > designers would have put tree views on both sides of
> > the splitter :)
> 
> User testing does indeed show that showing files in the tree view is
> important.  In a recent study done at Eazel, we found that users looked to
> the tree view as a place to get a files from other folders when another
> window is not available.

That makes sense...

> Also, keep in mind that other platforms use tree views extensively, and have
> always shown files and folders together.

For what it's worth, I'm quite sure that Windows' tree view only has 
directories in it.
 
> Finally, the reason we don't have our list view be a tree view, is purely
> due to time constraints.  Upcoming versions of Nautilus will feature a fully
> hierarchical list view.

Cool.
 
> > 2. there is no or little value add to including files
> > in the tree view other than cluttering the view.
> 
> The value added is that a user can get to a file from a directory that
> they're not currently in.  This means that while they're buried in some
> directory, they can easily access any file they have permissions for and
> copy, view, open, edit, or delete it... without having to physically go to
> that directory to perform those actions.

I see the point but I keep finding the Nautilus tree view to be hard to use
because it is so cluttered with files... As soon as I am a few directories I
have to scroll to the right (manually) then scroll down to where I'm going...
it just doesn't seem smooth yet...

It seems as though there is a lot of emphasis on making things easy to
learn even when they will be kludgy to use in the long run. This seems
to be an example of this. I hope there will be enough configurability so taht
those of us who don't mind putting effort into learning to use the system can
be rewarded with a system that truly is easy to use.

--Ben