Re: [Usability] Icon selector, 2nd mockup

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl>]

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003, Stefan Ihringer wrote:

> http://www.chromosomnia.org/_img/icon-chooser04.png

> I think the categories are a compromise of what makes sense for the
> user and what is available. I haven't seen a theme yet that contains
> more categories than the default gnome icon theme: apps, devices,
> mimetypes, filesystem, emblems, stock. Only the first three of them

The current design isn't bad, but I have a nasty feeling that it doesn't
quite fit with the way GNOME is headed, a document-oriented user
interface. When one of your tabs reads 'Applications' and another reads
'File icons' (why not just 'File types'?) then you emphasize to the user
that there is a distinction between the applications and the files she is
using. Of course, this distinction exists, but I think it should be
blurred rather than emphasized.

A different type of distinction which IMHO may make more sense for the
user, is the distinction on whether icons are already in use or not in use
by anything. Or we could borrow some categorization ideas from clipart
galleries (e.g. 'People', 'Computers', 'Travels'). My main point is; the
user is not going to care where the icon comes from, just what it looks
like.

regards,

-- 
Reinout van Schouwen			Artificial Intelligence student
email: reinout cs vu nl			mobile phone: +31-6-44360778