[Usability]Attempt at constructive criticism - "Why Gnome 2 sucks for me"

[Aleksander Adamowski <olo altkom com pl>]

 I've recently engaged in upgrading my Mandrake 8.2 to 9.0 betas and so 
I've had the opportunity to test Gnome 2.0

I've been a regular Gnome user around version 1.2, but since KDE became 
free (as in speech) with GPLization of QT library, and I've got a new, 
better machine, I've switched to KDE.

Since them, I've been trying out new versions of Gnome (1.4 and now 2.0) 
but all of them led me to disappointment.

I'll describe the main causes of that disappointment with Gnome 2.0 here 
in the hope that pointing out those flaws will help the Gnome usability 
project and maybe some day I'll see a Gnome release that I can actually 
use (2.0 got me irritated, then frustrated, then fed up with it in just 
an hour):


* Gnome help browser _still_ hasn't got any built-in search facility 
(neither "search for text in current page" nor "search for text in all 
help pages")

* To click an icon with transparency in Nautilus, one has to point the 
moue at the area that belongs to the shape depicted - not the general 
bounding box of the icon. Try to aim at that screwdriver icon in gnome 
control center!

* In some apps, the most basic button pairs in dialog boxes ([OK] - 
[Cancel], [Yes] - [No]) are placed exactly against the schemes the users 
are used to ([OK] and [Yes] are placed to the right in some Gnome apps). 
It's completely insane - people who are used to other popular 
environments (KDE, MS Windows) will constantly hit [No] or [Cancel] when 
they want to confirm. This should be settable from control center and 
should default to be analogous to other environments. You can see this 
behaviour ion the Gnome SAME game (preferences dialog box and the quit 
confirmation dialog box).
BTW. This case of bad user design (that surprises and irritates user for 
the sake of useless originality) is covered in the famous book "User 
Interface Design for Programmer" written by Joel Spolsky (see 
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000247.html>). He gives 
KAI's Photo Soap tools as an example of this - they exchanged positions 
of [OK] and [Cancel] to make an original UI and users were nothing but 
frustrated by this (this particular chapter is available at 
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000061.html>).

* Most settings in control center (themes, keyboard bindings...) are 
applied instantly when selected, without confirmation. There's no undo - 
so if you click something by accident you will lose your previous 
setting. Forgot what that setting had been before? Too bad - you cannot 
revert to it...

* Gnome 2 has that silly panel at the top - and I couldn't find ANY way 
to move it to the bottom of the screen! Nor enter its preferences! Nor 
hide it! Nor turn it into ordinary panel with hiding buttons! This panel 
is forced down the user's throat. And if there is any way to turn it off 
- I couldn't find it (if it exists, then it needs to be intuitive, or at 
least documented in the help system, a _searchable_ help system).

And there are some minor annoying visual glitches (filenames say it 
all), but those are most likely related to the Mandrake distro itself:
<http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/beta4/usage/Gnome2.0/Screenshot-Nautilus_HomeFolder_name_clipped.png>
<http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/beta4/usage/Gnome2.0/Screenshot-Polish_diacritical_characters_garbled.png>
<http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/beta4/usage/Gnome2.0/Screenshot-Printing_menu_covers_parent_menus_and_blocks_navigation.png>

Best regards,
--
   Olo
       GG#: 274614
       ICQ UIN: 19780575 
	http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl