[Usability]Re: Nautilus Preference Proposal (screenshots too!!!!)

[Dave Camp <dave ximian com>]

Pretty nice.  Some comments below.

On Tue, 2002-10-15 at 17:59, bordoley msu edu wrote:
 
> In addition, we'd like to consider moving the nautilus preferences out of 
> nautilus and into the control center. This change would make nautilus more 
> of a desktop component, similar to the panel, rather than a standalone 
> application. Also in the star trek future, some of these preferences could 
> in theory apply to a nautilus based file selector, so this is something to 
> at least consider.

I don't have a particularly strong preference either way.  I don't think
moving it to the control center would be a particularly bad idea.

> In our design, we consolidated the "arrange items" and "sort in reverse" 
> preferences for the icon and list views under the "default view" 
> subcategory. Its our opinion that the user should only have one default and 
> that these preferences should be shared between the list and icon views. In 
> addition the "sort folders before files" and "show hidden and backup files" 
> preferences have also been moved to the "default view" subcategory, as 
> these preferences affect how a user views a folder. 

This all makes sense, except that it seems like people might want to
decide on hidden and backup files separately.

> Both views retain their own default zoom preferences as users tend to 
> prefer larger icons in the icon view than in the list view. 
> 
> As a result of consolodating the arrange items preferences, a "use manual 
> layout" preferences was added to the "Icon View Defaults" subcategory. 
> 
> Finally, the tree view preference, "show only folders", has been moved into 
> the new "Tree View Defaults" subcategory. It seemed to fit in well here 
> along side the other folder views.

Nod.

> 3. Windows Category
> -------------------
> We removed the "windows" category in our design. The new window behavior 
> preference is moved into the new "files and folders" category (icon and 
> list views in the current design). 
> 
> We recommend that the "new window display" preferences be removed in
> favor of honoring the most recently selected setup from the view menu of 
> the main window (ie. if a user selects to show the toolbar in the current 
> window, all subsequent windows will show the toolbar as well). Galeon2 uses 
> this method to select which window elements to display and it seems to work 
> well. As always, we welcome comments. 

This is probably a good idea.  This is how I expected nautilus to work
the first time I used it.

>  
> 4. Desktop and Trash category
> -----------------------------
> We removed this category.
> 
> The "desktop" preferences are removed. These preferences seem to fall under 
> the crack options category in our opinion. While I personally am a huge fan 
> of "use home folder as desktop," from a pure usability standpoint I think 
> nautilus should only have one desktop dir (at least in the user visible 
> ui). In addition the "Use nautilus to draw the desktop" preference is really 
> a power user tweak preference that shouldn't be included in the ui (i'm not 
> aware of any other desktop shell/filemanager that includes such a 
> preference). We recommend removing these preferences from the user visible 
> ui, but retaining them as hidden gconf preferences for the power user in all 
> of us. :)

A lot of people seem to want to turn off the desktop drawing.  These
people are usually power users, but it's often the first thing they want
to turn off (they notice it quickly).

On the other hand, it strikes me as the kind of pref that could confuse
the hell out of a novice user. 

> 
> The trash behavior prefs are moved to the "files and folders" category. 
> 
> 
> 5. Files and Folders category (currently Icon and List Views)
> ------------------------------------------------------------- 
> First we generalized the title to "Files and Folders." This title is more 
> descriptive of the affect these preferences have on user interactions.
> 
> The "Click Behavior" subcategory is generalized to "Behavior." This 
> subcategory now includes both the "click" preferences and "open each file 
> and folder in a new window" preference.
>  
> The "Executable Text Files" category is renamed "Scripts." This change was 
> prompted by an existing nautilus bug report. I do not feel strong about the 
> title either way, however the word script does appear in other parts of the 
> nautilus ui. These prefs remain unchanged.

I think executable text files is probably better, given the fact that
there are Scripts elsewhere in the UI.  This preference is in fact
ignored when executing nautilus scripts. 

> As mentioned before the "Hidden files" and "Backup files" preferences are 
> moved into the views menu and are combined into a single preference. 
> 
> The "special flags in Properties dialog" preference is removed in our 
> design. This should just be enabled as the permission tab of 
> the properties window already requires the user to understand unix 
> permissions. We see no reason for a preference.

That makes sense.

> 
> 6. Sidepanes category
> --------------------------------
> This category is removed. With the new sidebar design the tabs preferences 
> seem out of place. We may want to include them as hidden preferences for 
> those tweakers who may gain from minor speed improvements, but this doesn't 
> really warrant inclusion in the ui. The tree view preference was moved to 
> the "views" category.

How should a misbehaving side pane be dealt with?  It would be possible
to add a "Disable this side pane" option to the dialog that is shown
when a view fails, but how would a user add it back?

>  
> 8. Previews Category (currently Performance)
> --------------------------------------------
> We renamed the category to "Previews" as these preferences more directly 
> affect how nautilus previews files. The effect on performance is a side 
> effect. This dialog remains unchanged with the exception that option menus 
> are used in place of the radio buttons (looked cleaner to us).

Yeah, looks nice.


> Anyway what does everyone think. Lets stay positive and avoid a flamewar :)

Overall I like it a lot.

-- 
Dave Camp <dave ximian com>