Re: [Usability] UI proposal for icon selector

[Stefan Ihringer <stefan ihringer gmx net>]

On 01/12/03 15:39:31, Bryan W Clark wrote:

> Just off the top of my head, I think a simplification of this could  
> be to only show the current theme icons and standard icons.  Remove  
> the rest of the advanced options and leave a browse button.  Assume  
> that if a user chooses an icon (browse or selecting in this menu)  
> that they want it to remain even if the theme changes.

Okay, right now these are the issues that need to be addressed. I'll  
add my comments after each one trying to sum things up for a bug  
report.

- The icon chooser will be predominantly used by advanced users because  
adding a new launcher is not a task novice users do (they're using the  
default apps which come with default icons)

vs.

- The icon chooser needs to be usable for novice users (which means:  
don't bother them with the concept of "themes"). For everyone else,  
there's the file selector.

=> I think that users who manage to get to the icon selector don't have  
to be developers but they are certainly not rookies anymore. Let's not  
forget that they have already completed the task of opening the file  
properties dialog.

- Choosing an icon is an explicit action by the user. The icon  
shouldn't be changed when switching themes.

vs.

- The icon should change when switching themes because the user won't  
be told about icon themes and other details. This behaviour would be  
consistent with the rest of the desktop.

=> I honestly don't know how to solve this one. Apart from the option I  
had included in my mockup. But I agree with you, Brian, and Mark that  
having less checkboxes would be a good thing.

- Finally: Which icons should be displayed? Since nautilus lets you  
change any file icon we really need to include the mimetypes directory.  
Emblems: certainly not. Stock? Probably not, as they are intended for  
interfaces. Moreover, do we need to show scaled versions of icons  
larger than 48x48 if there is not 48x48 version available?

> Also, we have a revert in the main properties window so we don't need
> one for the icon chooser as well.

Agreed. I'll remove it in my next mockup.

> The proposal is a great idea Stefan, I'd suggest merging some of the
> comments you get from the list build a good bug report.

Thanks! I'll file a report when the issues mentioned above have been  
solved.


Stefan