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

[John Sullivan <sullivan eazel com>]

on 3/4/01 10:57 AM, tom georgoulias at tmgeorgo io com wrote:

> 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.

This seems like a terrifying way to introduce a user to GNOME, at least as
stated here. There are potentially hundreds of MIME types, each one of which
could have a different default handler. The thought of a first-time user
answering questions about how they want to deal with each type before they
can even see Nautilus is enough to cause nightmares.

As Tom mentioned earlier, the choice of default handler ("what happens when
you double-click") is fully configurable on a type-by-type basis and even on
a file-by-file basis. The primary access point for this configuration is the
"Open with Other..." dialog. Another access point is the "File Types and
Programs" capplet in the Control Center (with the "Open with Other..."
dialog can lead you to).

I agree that this whole area isn't as polished in Nautilus as it could be,
and I'm sure we'll find ways to improve it (though not for the 1.0 release
that we are teetering on the verge of). I've heard a lot of feedback on this
topic already that's given me a lot of different ideas (though, of course,
some of the suggestions directly contradict others, so, as always, we can't
make everyone happy no matter what we do). More feedback is always welcome.

John