[Usability] UI proposal for icon selector

["Stefan Ihringer" <Stefan Ihringer gmx net>]

Hello,

this is my first post to the list :-) I've been using GNOME for a 
while now and I'm really impressed by how GNOME has progressed UI-
wise.

One thing, however, that has bugged me from the start was the process 
of selecting icons for the apps on my desktop. Here's what I don't 
like about the current dialog. Continue reading, because I'm also 
adding my thoughts about how to improve it.

1. The icon list defaults to /usr/share/pixmaps, it doesn't remember 
the last directory I used.

2. When I click browse I'm supposed to search the entire file system 
for the icon I'd like to use. I've read some stuff about icon themes 
on freedesktop.org concerning the standardized locations where icons 
might be stored. I can find these locations, but I guess Joe target 
user of GNOME would not.

3. The file selector allows me to pick a png file directly. So from 
now on I'm spending the rest of the time with the file selector. The 
nice icon list has thus become useless. (This used to be even more 
the case when the file selector had an image preview. This feature 
seems to be gone in GNOME 2.4?)

What I'm proposing is an overhaul of the gui so it looks and works 
more like for example the theme selector. The icon chooser should 
implement the logic of freedesktop.org's icon theme proposal but also 
hide these details from the user. In fact, the user shouldn't have to 
care about all those paths where icons might be stored 
(/usr/share/pixmaps, /usr/share/icons, ~/.icons). The dialog should, 
however, not stop power users from picking any image file they have 
in mind.

As an image speaks more than a thousand words, here's what I came up 
with in the gimp:
http://www.chromosomnia.org/_img/icon-chooser01.png

How does it work? (Having to explain it obviously means it's not a 
good design, but I'll do it anyway ;-)

- I think that there are two kinds of users to cater to: 
unexperienced users who "just likes to see the other icons available" 
and the rest who has probably just created a new launcher on the 
desktop for an application he just compiled/installed but which 
didn't supply an icon.

- Inexperienced users would be confronted with the icon list which 
looks quite a bit like it used to be. There would, however, be a way 
to group the icons so the list wouldn't have to hold hundreds of 
icons (worst case).

The options in the drop down would roughly correspond to the 
directory names used by the icon themes. Wording, of course, is to be 
debated. But I was thinking along the lines of:
  * Application icons (contains icons of "apps" directory)
  * System icons (filesystems and devices directories)
  * File icons (mimetypes dir)
  * Miscellaneous (everything in /usr/share/pixmaps and maybe stock 
icons?)

- What's listed in the icon list? All the icons in the 48x48 
directory of the current icon theme AND the 48x48 default icons of 
/usr/share/icons/gnome. If the current icon theme uses SVG icons, the 
scalable directory will obviously be used.

If the current icon theme contains an icon that is also supplied by 
the default theme only the themed icon would be shown. The user 
would't be able to see every icon of every icon theme. But that's a 
compromise I think is reasonable for unexperienced users. Power 
users, please read on.

- The "Show more icons from other themes" option would, when checked, 
reload the icon list to include duplicate file names as well. For 
one, the previously hidden default icons will be added. Moreover, 
icons supplied by other installed icon themes would be added. I don't 
know yet how to show them in the icon list. Duplicate file names or 
rather group them somehow?

- The "Allow this icon to be replaced when switching themes" 
determines how the user's selection is saved in the .desktop file. If 
unchecked, the complete path is saved which means the icon would 
always stay the same. If checked, however, only the file name is 
saved. The icon would change depending on which icon theme has been 
selected.

The default for this should be "unchecked" because I think users 
might get confused if icons they've explicitly chosen are changed by 
the system for no apparent reason.

- The last option would, when checked, disable all the widgets above 
and enable the file picker. Thus, power users may pick any file they 
want.

- Finally, the whole dialog applies changes immidiately. The "revert" 
button is used to restore the previous icon if the user decided to 
abort.


So, that's my proposal. I just hope that this hasn't been discussed 
or implemented yet (couldn't find anything in the archives though). 
Please add your comments :-)

Stefan Ihringer