Re: [Usability] Gnome Wallpaper Properties

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 18:17, Rodney Dawes wrote:

> If you could review this capplet so I can put in CVS for gnome 2.6, that
> would be great. Jody, JRB, and all the people that have given me
> feedback so far seem very enthusiastic about having this in 2.6.

Here's a few first impressions then (well, second I guess, as I saw your
original mockups a while back, too):

- I like the simpler appearance, and the better consistency with the
Theme Preferences window (although that could be improved even further).

- The GDSG defines the term for what we're changing here: "Desktop
Background".  We shouldn't call it 'wallpaper', IMHO.

- "No Wallpaper" should perhaps be "No Image"... as far as I'm concerned
I do still have 'wallpaper' when this option is selected, it just
happens to be a solid colour rather than a picture :)

- Again according to the GDSG, this is a "Preferences" window, not a
"Properties" window.

- When I run it, the only option I have is "No Wallpaper", which seems
slightly odd default behaviour.  Where is it looking for images, or do I
really have to add some myself?

- A simple schematic icon beside each item on the Style option menu
showing what 'tile', 'center', 'fill' and 'scale' mean could be useful. 
Although it's instant apply, it could still help an unsure user to pick
the right option first time, rather than having to try each option in
turn.  It would perhaps also allow you to remove the "on/to Screen"
wording from every menu item, which I think is a bit repetitive and
distracting.

- I'd maybe be more inclined to put the "Add" and "Remove" buttons down
the right-hand side of the list, to separate them from the "Style"
controls and for consistency with the Theme Preferences dialog.

A more general concern would be that themes can theoretically specify
backgrounds-- how is this dialog going to interact with that?

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems