Re: [Usability] Re: Proposal for a new default Gnome GUI

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Fri, 6 Jun 2003, Eugenia Loli-Queru wrote:

> Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 04:14:33 -0700
> From: Eugenia Loli-Queru <eloli hotmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Cc: desktop-devel-list gnome org, gtk-devel-list gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Re: Proposal for a new default Gnome GUI

> > Numerous people have said that having the menu icons on a different
> > coloured background from the text is bad UI wise.
>
> Hmm, I haven't heard of anyone. I actually much prefer the coloring, I
> believe it is clean and distinct... :)

I dont like it either but I think I can rationalise my dislike by saying
that the different colouring for the menu icons (mis)leads the eye.

The colour bar is vertical and I think mentally I am looking and seeing a
vertical bar with icons on it and grouping them together when really what
should be happening is I should be mentally associating the icon with the
text on their right.

I dont like the icons on the top right of the windows o O X, the colours
are unpleasantly muted, I prefer clear sharp primary colours I am not
ready for a theme done in Pastel colours.  The shapes o O X are very
stylised, o and O are not as conceptually clear as the Icons metacity
currently uses.

http://img.osnews.com/img/3721/test1.png
Decor and Theme should be left aligned rather than centre aligned if i
remember the Guidelines correctly.

It is not a new concept (keep destructive actions away from safe actions)
but I really hate having the maximise button so close to the Close X
button, but I dont want to use a theme that clones the Mac either.  At the
very least I would like to see a square worth of blank space between
Maximise and close.

http://www.osnews.com/img/3721/test3.png
The Ximian Fix pictured in the article looks good but really dialogs need
to be designed to resize and reflow properly or to do at least a bit of a
little bit of reflow as best as can be managed.  Some people prefer/need
different font sizes and then get screwed by dialogs that they cannot
resize.
(Not about the theme but...) I have had problems with windows that were
too large but metacity had greyed out Resize, there are just too many
broken apps to assume that the applications will ever get fixed, metacity
needs to allow this kind of resizing to fit small screens, if anyone can
point me to a relevant bug report I would appreciate it.


Sincerely

Alan Horkan.

http://www.guadec.org
Only ten days until GUADEC 4!

PS I try and avoid cross posting, so I have replied only to Eugenia and
the usability list.