Re: [Usability]widget style vs window decoration, (was "cheat to window-manager integration")

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

tor 2002-07-25 klockan 04.36 skrev Sunnanvind Fenderson:
> I like the word "widget", and it's not particularly harmful for it to
> be present.
> 
> Before I knew what the name for widgets were, i.e. before I'd heard
> the word widget, they were really hard to talk about, and even as a
> non-programming user many people would like to do that.
> 
> (With "application theme" I'm reading "application specific themes"
> which would be very wrong.)
> 
> Calling the widget style settings "widget style" is a gentle way for
> people to find out that the common name for those clickable
> thingamajigs are "widgets".

We are not here to educate people, we are here to present people with a
usable desktop, and preferrably regardless of their previous familiarity
with certain design terminology.

Not all people are of the kind "oh here is something that I'm not
familiar with, let's see what it does" but rather "oh here is something
that I'm not familiar with, better not touch that". In that respect,
presenting the user with strange terminology is something that should be
*avoided* rather than enouraged.


Christian