Re: [orca-list] Navigation on desktop icon view: Which is appropriate(Right arrow/Down Arrow)?

[Steve Holmes <steve holmes88 gmail com>]

This sounds like the same sort of problems that often goes with the 
Microsoft Windows desktops too.  I really wish one could use a "List 
view" in both situations.  The only other thing I would think of would 
be to allow the tab key to traverse the desktop from first icon to the 
last which would usually be a top left to bottom right but probably go 
down each column vertically.

What I usually do with these desktops is first, sort all icons by type; 
then when navigating, I usually start at the top left with the home key 
and then go down the first column.  When I hit bottom, I press home 
again and then move over to the right one position and then go down that 
column.  I keep doing that until I run out of choices.  I believe it is 
the right most column that will contain the last icons in the list.  the 
thing I don't like in all these desktops is on that last column, as you 
hit bottom of that often shorter list, the pointer will be pushed back 
over to the next column to the left and that can cause all kinds of 
confusion if you don't realize what is happening.  I think it would be 
better to just stop in its tracks and not allow any further navigation 
in that downward direction on that last column.

Hope this makes sense.

On 12/29/2011 10:45 PM, Leena Chourey wrote:
> Dear Members,
>
> As a research project we are working on the navigation related issues on
> Desktop icon view and we found following issues & bugs related with
>
>   * Issues: (Completeness)to visit all icons, generally the user starts
>     with top icon of first column by pressing Home. Then he presses down
>     arrow key to traverse all icons of current column. When he reaches
>     the bottom, he either goes back to top icon, moves left to top icon
>     in second column, then moves down to last icon in the column. Or he
>     presses right arrow key to move to bottom icon of second column,
>     then moves up to top icon of the column. Proceed to next column if
>     any and stop when the last icon is reached. In absence of visual
>     feedback it is very confusing with item repetitions, and with
>     different arrow key directions. And important is, that there are
>     chances to miss/skip some icons on desktop, means incompleteness. It
>     is not sure that user has visited all item available on desktop.
>     Bug613111 <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=613111>
>
>            For the same, we have explored and concluded that there
> should be an easy way to navigate through icons on desktop for
> traversing (with completeness) or searching.There should be connectivity
> between previous row/column and next row/column for the completeness.
> Means to traverse all icon with single direction (either down arrow or
> right arrow) focus should move from one row/column to next row/column.
> As I understands, for a visually impaired user there is nothing like
> rows and columns, they will refer just pre/next items on desktop. Now
> the query is, which direction (top-->bottom or left--> right)will be
> appropriate or should be chosen to work on same issue? Is there any
> reason to give preference to use LTR (Left To Right) than TTB(Top To
> Bottom)? It would be better if some statistics or research results are
> available to justify the choice.
>
> Your suggestions and feedback are welcome to discuss.
>
> With regards
> Leena
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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