Re: Nautilus Must-Fix List - Revision 2

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 05Sep2001 02:30PM (-0400), Brian Crescimanno wrote:
> Here is revision 2 of the must-fix list for Nautilus.  This is the final
> version before the meeting today...any changes discussed at the meeting
> will be put into a version 3 which will come out shortly after the
> meeting.

Hi Brian,

As one of the Nautilus developers, I'd like to comment on your remarks.
 
> Desktop
> 1.	There need to be more options to arrange icons on the desktop
> 	rather than just "Clean Up By Name."  
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	GNOME 1.2 had a "tidy icons" feature which would allow you to
> 	simply align the icons (keeping their general location) to 
> 	make them appear more cleanly placed.  Currently, in nautilus,
> 	the only way to "tidy icons" is to arrange them all on the left
> 	side of the screen, by name.  

I agree that this would be a nice additional feature. Calling it a
"must fix" sounds a bit extreme when there are probably worse
usability problems.
 
> 2.	Trash Icon Needs to have a customizable icon
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	It is the ONLY icon that is placed on the desktop that does not
> 	have a "custom image" property that can be directly accessed
> 	by the user (though a theme can currently modify the icon.

The reason you can't customize the trash icon is that there are two
different ones, empty and full. So either we'd have to not let the
trash show the difference between full and empty when the icon is
customized (which I think is poor) or have a way to set a custom icon
for both states separately.

Do you have a design for a good way to let the user set two custom
icons for the trash?
 
> 3.	Text for icons on desktop should have customizable colors
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	When using a light colored background with a light colored theme,
> 	the text becomes unreadable on the desktop.  This can be easily
> 	remedied by either allowing the user to customize the text color
> 	(which does not solve the problem if the background shifts color)
> 	or by allowing the user to set a "bgcolor" property for the text
> 	so the text is always laid on a solid background.

The text color is supposed to switch between black and white depending
on how dark the background is. Perhaps the heuristic needs tuning. It
also does't work very well if the desktop has both dark and light
areas. I suggest phrasing this one as "text for icons on desktop is
sometimes hard to read".

> Main Window:  General
> 1.	The titlebar needs to be a bit more descriptive than listing
> 	a simple one word directory name
>      
> 	PROPOSED SOLUTION:
> 	Use a full path rather than just the current directory.
> 	A lot of people have directories with the same name
> 	in different paths, this will clear up any confusion.

There's a reason it's done the way it is now. In the task list, when a
window title is too long to fit, the name gets cut off at the end. The
Nautilus developers thought it was more likely users would be looking
at files or directories with different base names but in the same
general part of the filesystem than with the same name but in
different parts of the filesystem. So we decided to show only the base
name since this was the part most likely to be different.

To give a concrete example, suppose you are visiting the following two
directories in different windows: /usr/local/my-files/music/rock and
/usr/local/my-files/music/pop. If the task list only has room to show
20 characters, then if you use the full path as the title, you get:

[/usr/local/my-fil...]
[/usr/local/my-fil...]

With the basename only, you get:

[   rock   ]
[   pop    ]

Perhaps if there was a hint to make the task list ellipsize window
titles at the beginning or in the middle instead of at the end, we
could change this behavior.

 
> Main Window:  View as List
> 1.	Needs to be split into "simple list" and "detailed list"
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	Some directories..like giant directories of documents and such,
> 	are too long to be listed in the standard icon format and be
> 	easy to deal with.  However, you don't need the full details
> 	of the file, a simple "list with icons" would be great (similar
> 	to the Windows explorer "View as list" feature).

How about using the icon view with a smaller zoom level? I think
that's more or less equivalent to what you want. We could even put the
label to the right instead of below the icon at smaller zoom levels.
 
> Main Window:  View as Music
> 1.      Needs to be "View as media" or done away with completely
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	I think this view, while it has it's merits, is unnecessary
> 	bloat in the program.  Most people will continue to use
> 	xmms or mpg123 (or another program) to play their mp3's, they
> 	don't want their file manager to do it for them.
> 
> 	PROPOSAL:
> 	When GStreamer comes along further, perhaps a "Nautilus media
> 	player" can be built around that technology which integrates
> 	with nautilus, and handles all forms of media in a 
> 	nautilus-like environment.  Until then, I think the "view as
> 	music" mode is a fairly worthless feature.

I don't think that "I think this feature sucks" is a very appropriate
item for a "must fix" list. Are users harmed in any way by having the
option to use the music view?

Suggestions for specific enhancements are welcome, although I am not
sure switching from "music" to "media" is an improvement (I'd rather
have a different view for video for instance).
 
> Preferences:  View Preferences
> 1.	Change name to "Customize Views"
> 	
> 	REASON:
> 	"View preferences" sounds like a general term for looking at 
> 	your preferences.

Good point about the confusion. Also, repeating the word "Preferences"
seems redundant in a preference dialog. Perhaps it could just be
called "Views" instead of "Customize Views" since this is already a
preference/customization dialog.

> 2.	Clean Up
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	This screen looks like it was thrown together in 30 seconds.  
> 	Clean up the select boxes and stuff, it looks pretty scattered
> 	at the moment

Can you be more specific about what you'd like changed?

 
> Preferences:  Appearance
> 1.	Change name to "Themes"
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	It makes it very apparent to the user where to find a place
> 	to change your nautilus theme if it's listed as such.  Also,
> 	the other (few) appearance preferences can still be listed there
> 	as "themes" has become a general term used for program
> 	appearance.

I'm not sure I agree with this change. Not all the Appearance
preferences really have to do with themes, so I think this is choice
is less precise. I'd like to see some user testing backing up the
claim that calling it "Themes" would help users.
 
> 2.	Move the themes dialog to the top
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	Put the item people are going to want to use most at the top
> 	of the window, not the bottom.  Most people who want to change
> 	the appearance want to modify the theme...give this to them
> 	as their first option.

The theme selection list is already by far the most obvious and
visible widget in the dialog. I think it would ruin the flow of this
pane to put the other settings on the dialog. Try mocking it up in
glade and see.
 
> Preferences:  Windows & Desktop
> 1.	Split these up into "Windows", "Desktop & Trash" and move
> 	"keyboard shortcuts to a "general preferences" section
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	This window is a jumbled mess of options that really don't belong
> 	together.  Split them up into more specific and descriptive
> 	categories.  Who is going to look to customize the trash options
> 	by looking under "windows and desktop?"

Splitting "Windows" and "Desktop & Trash" seems OK, although it starts
to verge on too many preference categories. I disagree about adding a
"general preferences" section, though. A category of "general" is a
pretty useless one, I think.

> Preferences: Icon & List Views
> 1.
> 
> Preferences: Icon Captions
> 1.	I don't know, it's just bad...
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	This should be moved and grouped with other options of simliar
> 	nature.

To what category would you suggest moving it? There's no room in the
"Icon & List Views" pane.
 
> Preferences:  Search
> 1.	Move this to the Navigation window
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	There's no reason to have an entire window for one preference.

I see two preferences in "Search". I'm not sure if it would be as easy
for users to find them if they were in a "Navigation" category.
 
> Preferences:  Navigation
> 1.	Looks like a good place for "SEARCH" to go!
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	Do I really have to?
> 
> Preferences:  Speed Tradeoffs
> 1.	Change name to "performance"
> 
> 	REASON:
> 	NEVER tell a user that what you are making them do is a tradeoff.
> 	They feel cheated by it!
> 

I disagree with this one. These are generally settings that trade off
speed against features. "Performance" might make the user think they
can increase performance for free. I would rather be honest about the
nature of these settings than prevent users from feeling "cheated".


My own suggestions for the preference dialog include:

* Move the News Panel preferences to the "sidebar panels" cateogry and
don't show them at Beginner user level (maybe not at "Intermediate"
either).

* Show fewer settings at "Beginner" user level.

* Take out some settings completely, if possible.

 - Maciej