[Usability] Re: Proposed AbiWord preferences dialog mockup

[Dom Lachowicz <domlachowicz yahoo com>]

> What I meant was that even within users using those
> languages, few will have 
> an understanding of what those prefs mean. Much
> better to do this behind the 
> scenes and have it work automagically. 

Yeah, we try to do this as automagically as possible.
This is here in case we mess up. Maybe it shouldn't be
displayed in the UI, maybe it shouldn't. Seeing as how
our app isn't omnipotent, keeping the pref itself
makes good sense, though.
 
> > I'm going to have to agree with Alan. Auto-save is
> not
> > an obvious thing to have enabled and can have
> > undesirable side-effects.
> 
> see my other email. I think saving in general is
> non-obvious, which is why 
> so many people seem to forget to do it despite our
> best to prevent it. 

I'd have to disagree with you here, but I'm not going
to belabor the point. Saving isn't going away.
Auto-saving isn't going to be the default.
 
> tog has a pretty good article on usability vs.
> branding [1]. Splash screens 
> reduce usability in favor of branding. I won't
> belabor the point though. 

I'll read this article. However, I doubt a 1 second
splash screen is going to negatively affect usability.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions thus far,
Dom

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