Re: Column View

[Tristan O'Tierney <totierney yahoo com>]

Certainly, Gene.
My interets lie strongly in interface design and
usability. I can show why it would be a worthwhile
cause to implement such a feature.

First, take a look at these two screenshots:
http://www.otierney.net/images/columnview/tree.png
http://www.otierney.net/images/columnview/column.png

in the tree view and column view pictures, i used
green lines to denote mouse movement, and red boxes to
denote "hit areas." the mouse is starting at the
center of the window as a matter of consistency.

As a pre-req please read this url:
http://asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html#fitts's%20law

Fittz law states that the time to acquire a target is
a function of it's distance, and it's size.  In the
column view, you'll notice the size of the targets is
quite large.  You'll also notice that the distance
from targets is a lot larger in the column view. the
targets in the tree view are quite small, on the other
hand, and the distance is smaller on average too.
however, the size of the targets in the column view is
so much larger than the tree view's that it
compensates for the distance to get to each target. it
actually is faster to acquire the targets in the
column view because of this.

A column view is essentially a tree view, flattened
out into a horizontal space instead of a vertical
space.  The benefits can especially be seen if you
have used it for a considerable amount of time. 
rather than having to reposition the mouse after
clicking on a folder, you typically barely have to
move the mouse. which brings me to these pictures:

http://www.otierney.net/images/columnview/scroll1.png
http://www.otierney.net/images/columnview/scroll2.png
http://www.otierney.net/images/columnview/scroll3.png

In the first picture, you don't notice much.  but look
at the last 2.  that's very little time to acquire the
target for the last 2 pictures, and ALL subsequent
targets after it.  the benefits don't show until you
get into a deep nest of folders, and this is where
tree views start to degrade in efficiency quickly but
where the column view simply shines.

all in all, the column view is an elegant solution to
browsing files, and is more efficient than the tree
view (which nautilus doesn't even implement). i'm sure
most of this will sound greek to programmers, but
that's where i come in. i'm a programmer and an
interface architect, so i can fix these problems.  

--- "Gene Z. Ragan" <diskzero mac com> wrote:
> I would humbly suggest that you engage in an in
> depth discussion over 
> the advantages and shortcomings
> of the MacOS X design of the before you go ahead and
> attempt to create 
> a clone.  The implementation
> of such a feature would be non-trivial and a direct
> copy, if possible, 
> may not be an ideal choice.
> 
> Gene
> 
> On Nov 30, 2003, at 5:18 PM, Tristan O'Tierney
> wrote:
> 
> > Then I'd be interested in implementing it and
> > providing patches, if they would be accepted.
> However
> > I don't want to waste my time impelmenting it only
> to
> > have it denied.  Who should i talk to about such
> an
> > issue? (i.e. who's the lead developer(s) of
> nautilus).
> >
> > --- Dave Camp <dave ximian com> wrote:
> >> There are no plans to implement a column view in
> >> 2.6.
> >>
> >> -dave
> >>
> >> On Sun, 2003-11-30 at 04:56, Tristan O'Tierney
> >> wrote:
> >>> Can we expect a mac os x like column view
> >>> (http://www.otierney.net/images/columnview.pdf)
> in
> >> the
> >>> gnome 2.6 release of nautilus? If not, i'd like
> to
> >>> request this feature.  It's been long missing in
> >>> nautilus.  KDE has a poor implementation, so it
> >> would
> >>> be nice if nautilus could make a non-halfassed
> >> version
> >>> like konquerors.
> >>>
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> >>
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