Re: [Usability] Text legibility on the desktop; the Cartesian file browser

[lukekendall optushome com au]

On  5 Feb, Gediminas Paulauskas replied to:

>  > If you're looking for files by name you're doing a different thing than 
>  > looking for them by content view.  So maybe splitting the directory up 
>  > by file type makes more sense.  So reserve a grid area for image file 
>  > types, displayed in an X-Y grid, and then use an explorer style view 
>  > below. 
>   
>  Are you talking about List view? It was in Nautilus from the beginning... 

Not really.  I was wondering if some adaptive view model might be
better than a mode where every file gets a thumbnail view.  That works
brilliantly for image files, and IMHO is wildly inappropriate for non
image files.  For those, the name is far more deserving of a portion of
screen space than a relatively large area that just tells you its file
type.

So I was wondering whether a view mode where files were grouped by type,
and screen space for graphical info chosen by type.  I suspect this
would be a small usability breakthrough.

I.e., instead of the existing `display content thumbnail view'
presentation:

   o	Group image files together, and devote as much screen space to
	the thumbnail that Nautilus currently provides.

   o	Group other file types together (e.g. source files in one bunch;
	plain text files in another; sound files in another; compressed
	files in another, etc.).

   o	Devote a little screen space to signifying the group's type,
   	and for the rest, present mainly the filename.  Or, if someone
   	thinks of some other cool and helpful way of displaying some
   	info, then choose the screen space based on the value of the
   	visual cue.
   	
>  In Windows Explorer, however, this view is called "Details", and "List" is  
>  just file names with small file type icons on the left. So, maybe that's  
>  what you want? Yes, it would be nice to have such a view in Nautilus. At  
>  least in Windows Explorer I always use that view. 

I agree; but I was musing on a slightly different problem.

luke