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

[Aleksander Adamowski <olo altkom com pl>]

Daniel Borgmann wrote:

> Let's talk about some specific examples (if you want to). Do you have
> any? :) I'm sure in most cases it will be one of this:
> - A visual preference, like a theme or colors or font sizes. Those are
> always good IMO as long as they don't exaggerate.
> - A preference depending on the users environment (his pointing device,
> his resolution, etc)
> - Accessability
> - A preference to suit old habbits for users who simply don't want to
> adjust, although there way to work is in no way more efficient,
> convenient or visual appealing than the default way. Those preferences
> are IMO the worst ones...
> - Exceptions ;)
>  
An example that comes to my mind now is the setting, which allows for  window list to contain either windows on all virtual desktops or only on the current one.

Where would you put it in you classification? I would put it in exceptions.
Or maybe in habits, but I find it that even I keep changing it from time to time depending on need, which depends on my screen width in pixels (amount of space for window list) and the  amount of apps I'm working with during the particular project (sometimes their number is so massive, that I need an additional dimension - virtual desktops - to keep track of them all).


Another example:
A preference whether you can drag a window to the next desktop with the mouse.

I'd guess most people love it, but I sometimes find it irritating when I only want to move a window out of my way for a moment, and instead I'm taken to a different desktop.

What a user wants in this case, depends on his style of work. I agree, that the user may benefit from adjusting his style of work to fit the design of desktop environment (standardization, less time spent on customization), but where it starts to be a pain for him, where do you draw the line, is an open question (and we I think this discussion tries to find a better answer than we had until today).