Re: [Usability]Why Desktop Icons?



On Tue, 2002-03-19 at 16:57, Mike McKee wrote:

    I've used Windows awhile now and have moved from crazed fan to
     counter-Microsoft over a course of years. One of those most
     aggravating features of it is the icons on the desktop. After awhile,
     I abuse this desktop and start storing icons on it for all kinds of
     things to the point where I can't find anything anymore. Often when I
     download something, I can pick where I want to put it. Now that
     there's this Desktop button in the Save As dialog, I click that and I
     store that file on the desktop. Later, supposedly, I am to move it
     from my desktop to a better location, but often priorities get in the
     way and I can't do anything about it. This also slows down the loading
     of the desktop, and every maximize, minimize, and movement of windows
     slows down.

This sounds like my physical desk in my room ;-)
    
    Since then, I've switched my Windows 2000 configuration around now that
     I found an option where I can turn off desktop icons and merely show a
     bitmap or just a color there. This speeds up my desktop quite a bit,
     speeds up my login time, and forces me to be more organized.

You can do this in GNOME too. Nautilus preferences has an option to not
draw the desktop at all, but just have a wallpaper.

    My
     suggestion is that GNOME remove the icons from the desktop and switch
     all icons to the taskbar and menus. It distances them away from all
     the "knock-offs". It reduces clutter and creates a cleaner interface.
     It forces people to be a little more organized.

Ahem. This is again an issue where everybody and their cat has a strong
opinion and everyone is used to their own way of using the system.

For the record, I use the desktop a LOT - I manage all my files there
(my Nautilus desktop is my home directory actually) And yes. I am very
happy on how it works.

I think you should look at the virtual desktops thing, it is a pretty
nice way of organizing applications so that the screen stays free of
clutter, and having a quick way to get into a clean desktop if needed.
Most Windows users are just not used to them and tend to ask for weird
features like the infamous windows MDI (applications have one big parent
window where the open documents are contained inside)

But the virtual screens thing solves these pretty elegantly IMHO.

Tuomas
 
-- 
:: :: Tuomas Kuosmanen  :: Art Director, Ximian :: ::
:: :: tigert ximian com :: www.ximian.com       :: ::




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