Re: [Usability] user levels, etc.

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 12Nov2001 01:04PM (-0800), Adam Elman wrote:
> 
> I don't think that a "power user control panel" or "power-tweaker 
> application" are the right approach either, though.  The right answer, 
> unfortunately, is hard design work: Figure out what users are actually 
> doing/going to do with your application, figure out the set of 
> preferences which most users will likely want to customize to their own 
> needs, and make those available.  Then figure out the set of preferences 
> which _some_ users will need, and make those available -- not through an 
> "Advanced Settings" or a disclosure triangle, ideally, but in a way that 
> clearly denotes what preferences are going to be found.

You and Greg both suggested this line of reasoning. I think a "power
tweak" type application is useful because it makes the vocal minority
of people who want slightly odd features shut up, without cluttering
the actual UI.

Recall the recent Galeon discussion, where for many obviously overly
complex preferences, there were people who insisted on being able to
set them.

Also, Nautilus has quite a few preferences for a file manager at the
advanced user level, yet many of the ones people really shouldn't need
(use home directory as desktop, show only folders in the tree view)
were specifically requested, often by multiple users.

When we discussed this idea at ALS, we thought of calling this
preference dumping ground app "Crack Pipe", and mentioned that it
probably shouldn't be shipped with GNOME by default.

 _ Maciej

P.S. Even Mac OS X has hidden settings, the only UI for them right now
is to edit the config files hower.