Re: [Usability] making the conceptual model more concrete

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2003 at 12:50:32AM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> A random thought I had - we have the "ideal conceptual model"
> (most recently mentioned in Calum's presentation
> http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/articles/guadec-2003/img8.html)
> 
> If we really think such a model would be easier to use (and perhaps
> also more general/powerful), and I think it might be, perhaps what's
> missing is a translation from the model into concrete changes to be
> made in the code.
> 
> For example, "allow applets to be dragged to the desktop background"
> would be one, no? Or more generally "make the desktop background and
> the panel the same kind of container"
> 
> This gives a concrete programming task that someone can hack on. I
> think it might be hard for people to make the leap from the diagram of
> the model to the specific code/UI changes that it implies.
> 
> So perhaps a simple list of such changes, or even a writeup describing
> the overall utopian desktop (complete with mockup screenshots), 
> would go a long way toward helping the developers visualize the
> suggested changes and encourage them to code it up.
> 
> In short, a sort of high-level roadmap for desktop design changes over
> the next few years.

The last time I tried this [1], I got monkeycrap [2] flung in my face.

1. http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2002-November/msg00087.html
2. http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2002-November/msg00113.html