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

[<bordoley msu edu>]

First, titling an email post "Why Gnome 2 sucks for me" is hardly the way to 
offer constructive criticism as it is more likely to encourage a hostile 
reaction from the target audience of the email.


Aleksander Adamowski <olo altkom com pl> said:
> * 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>).
> 

As someone who is currently stuck using windows machines most of the time and 
who has been using the windows for 8-10 years, I have to say that the new 
button ordering, while odd at first, has proved to be a real delight. The UI 
is now consistent. In fact I have grown so use to the button ordering that 
the total lack of consistent layout in windows drives me up the wall. This 
was a good change, and I really am glad that the members of the UI team 
worked so hard to get it through instead of just following the status quo.

> * 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...

There has been some discussion of adding a revert to default option for these 
dialogs. That said, I really dont think this is that big of an issue, 
personally. I think of instant apply dialogs like light switches (this holds 
pretty well for check boxes) you just flip the switch. The keyboard shortcut 
capplet is one dialog where a revert to default button would probably be a 
good idea though, since a user could probably very easily break keyboard 
shortcuts.

> 
> * 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).
> 

yeah the menupanel will most likely be replaced with a menubar applet on a 
standard edge panel in gnome 2.2. Well thats assuming someone starts working 
on the menubar applet. 

dave