Re: [Usability]Re: Nautilus preferences proposal

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

David Moles wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 2002-05-01 at 08:34, Ettore Perazzoli wrote:
> >
> > I.e. in the first case, parenthood is expressed horizontally; in the
> > second case, horizontally and vertically at the same time.  Once you get
> > used to it, I think the first one makes more sense and is actually nicer
> > to use.  (Also, trees in general kinda suck.)
> 
> I think we have at least two clear camps here, people who agree with
> Ettore and people who feel exactly the opposite. :) (E.g., I think
> trees in general kinda rock. :>)

When the horizontal browser-type interface first appeared on NeXT
desktops, I seem to remember it was because it had won out quite
convincingly over tree controls in usability tests... people just seemed
to 'get it' much more than they did with tree controls, with their
fiddly hotspots and hidden branches.

Tree controls are far more prevalent these days so I guess fewer people
are quite so flustered when they see them now, but over the years
they're probably still the control I've seen people have most problems
with (along with all but the simplest tabbed notebook controls).

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems