Re: [Nautilus-list] Integration of gmc and nautilus desktop directories.

[Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert ximian com>]

On 14 Apr 2001 08:58:00 -0700, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> File selectors should not default to saving to the desktop. That would
> make your desktop messy pretty fast.

Where should they default then? I know we can have a My Stuff folder to
default to. But whatever folder they default to is going to get messy
anyway. If it is the desktop, it is more likely to get cleaned up too.

> > Can someone with real user interface experience give some real input on
> > this so I know if I am on crack or not? :-) Or are we just trying to
> > "Make UNIX not suck, as long as it does not involve my $HOME!" :)
> 
> MacOS X, BeOS and NeXT are unix-like systems designed by people with
> real user interface experience. In each case, the desktop is distinct
> from the user's home directory. So I think the people with real user
> interface experience have kind of spoken on this issue.

What does one do with the home directory on MacOS X? Is it on the
desktop as a folder or is it just used with the terminal window? I
havent had a change to try it yet :-|

More importantly, was there a separation of $HOME and the way it was
accessed from the GUI? It is also a bit hard to try out NeXT. Can you
enlighten me a bit on how these worked from the users point of view?

> Of course, there is a great way to prove lots of people with user
> interface wrong - do some user testing. If you'd like to do some user
> tests on this issue, I bet you can find lots of people to help you
> design some appropriate test cases. User testing is a much better way
> to resolve disagreements about UI issues than armchair debate on
> mailing lists. 

Yeah I know. I am planning on doing this but my possibilities are not
that great considering I only have this computer of mine on this home of
mine. But I agree it is a valid point. Assumptions are sometimes very
wrong. But I was just trying to bring up a discussion on this. I would
be very interested in seeing some results on this if someone has the
resources to do some testing.

> In fact, I remember suggesting user testing to you on #nautilus, and I
> don't recall anyone calling your idea "evil" or "wrong". So seriously,
> do some formal user testing, it's a really educational experience.

I dont know if this counts as "user testing" but this is from my
original mail you replied to:

    "I talked with Garrett Le Sage (the linux.com artist guy) and he
    said he had a lot of trouble explaining to his family (he installed
    Linux with GNOME for them) that the files they saved did not go to
    the desktop, but they had to find them in this special directory.
    And those people were not never-used-a-pc-before -level, they had
    some computing experience beforehand. They learned how it worked and
    have no problem now. But
    should they need to learn such at thing at all?"

Now these are real people who *did* have trouble with this thing.

Best,

Tuomas



________________________________________________________________________
 
Tuomas Kuosmanen - Art Director -
Ximian - tigert ximian com -
www.ximian.com