Re: [Nautilus-list] Results of MIT usability testing

[tom georgoulias <tmgeorgo io com>]

Miles Lane wrote:

> >>> My personal recommendation would be that a double-click launches an
> >>> external editor, or optionally a dialog that asks the user what app
> >>> they want to use to edit or view the file.

> > Actually, I just found out you *can* do this by changing the default
> > application in the file handler.  I'm a little ashamed for writing my
> > statement above before fully investigating, but I don't know how long
> > this feature has been active so it may have just been added or
> > implemented.
> 
> Well, a lot of usability for the majority of users
> has to do with defaults that give them familiar
> GUI behavior.  I think all such options should default
> to Windoze-like behavior and then geeks can tweak those
> settings to their heart's content.

True.  An easy way to do this is to have the first time start up wizard
get the current control center configs and confirm the apps the user has
chosen to deal with MIME types.  If they want the "no default, present
options in a list" option they could also choose that.  In either case,
the wizard could then tell them where they can change this config at a
later time and proceed on it's merry way.

If this is the first time they are using GNOME they could be presented
with a list of choices for each MIME type sort of like this:

"What would you like to use for text editing?  
1. Emacs 2. gEdit 3. vi 4. abiword.  5. XXXX

"What would you like to use for MP3s?  
1. mpg123 2. freeamp 3. XMMS 4. XXXX

and so on.  A few short statements about each of the different choices
would give insight on which might be the best option for the user (gEdit
-simple text editor, freeamp --full featured mp3 player, etc.) and could
even be narrowed down (or decided for them) by their choice of nautilus
user level: beginner, intermediate, advanced.  This would solve a lot of
problems right from the start.
-- 
tom georgoulias
You are not your stock portfolio
http://www.frontwheeldrive.com/