Re: [Usability] FOSA ideas

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

> > somebody could take a step back and just list the user tasks we think
> > we're trying to support here, before we comment too deeply on any
> > mockups and get taken in by how good/bad/indifferent they look.  If we
> > could agree on those and some rough task categorisation (e.g.
> > frequently-done by many users, frequently by few, occasionally by many,
> > and occasionally by few), we'd be in great shape for assessing which
> > designs best met the user requirements :)

> > Cheeri,
> > Calum.

> Here are my thoughts on frequency of user tasks.

> Keep in mind this is a File Dialog and there are limited options known
> to exist in relation to them. The problem space seems rather limited
> (Advanced operations on files have no real need to be in a FOSA window):
>
> 1) navigating

This is a big problem when trying to search for and find a document to
open, which hopefully can be made slightly easier by things like
  remembering default directories  (including Desktop, Documents, etc)
  having some preset shortcuts/bookmarks
  remembering the last used directory

I think the location bar could be expanded to also contain these
additional preset locations.

Access to an extensive history of the 'Recent Documents' might also help
although not directly related to the File Open Save As Dialog.

Navigation for saving is simpler and hopefully involves going to a preset
folder (or being there automatically) and possibly creating a folder.

I forget where I saw it but I particularly liked one implementation I saw
which put you inside the newly created folder as soon as you had created
it.

Things could be made more streamlined for advanced users if by typing in a
non existant path as the filename, something like
~username/home/newfolder
caused you to be asked: folder does not exist, create?

> 2) selecting (aspects of search refinement and preview probably fall
> under this category)

searching is a really complicated task, look how complicated advanced
search tools are, there is only so much that can be done in a file dialog,
overcomplication would need to be avoided.

> 3) deleting (to avoid conflicts)
> 4) renaming (to avoid conflicts)

Good automatic suggestions could help here.  I usually append -001 or a
similar number pattern to the end of duplicate filenames and rarely delete
or rename files from within the file open dialog if I can avoid it.
Ideally there would some fairly substantial UNDO behind the renaming
(accessible by Control+Z most likely) in case a user accidentally renamed
a file.

> 5) selecting encoding

I would suggest that encoding is a very specific detail that would not be
done by many users or even done very often (at least not ideally) by users
who do use it.

>  ??? // I don't see many FOSA operations done frequently by a small
> segment of people... I would love to get some other peoples opinions on
> it.

> Occasionally by few:
>
>  Deleting a file

Infreqeuntly used functionality:

Opening a document as read-only

Adjusting the save options (eg compression level) users will find
suitable settings and keep using them for most cases.

Using the refresh option.

Creating a New folder, which despite being very useful I dont think is a
very frequent action.

> 2)
>
> Provision of mechanisms to hide file system specifics where applicable.
> Alan cooper said it best "Disks and files don't help users achieve their
> goals." Shortcuts to avoid traversing directory hierarchy seems like a
> good solution to this problem.  By removing the knowledge required to
> locate relevant files we have provided the user more effective means of
> reaching common destinations quickly.
>
> 3)
>
> Minimalistic design, we need to avoid cluttering the UI where possible
> to prevent higher levels of cognition from occurring. The less
> reflective cognition (conscious choice and seeking) we impose the
> better.

On the basis that we cannot please everyone any design must consider
extensibility.

<snip> lots of big ideas which definately need to be kept in mind </snip>

Nice work Eli.

Calum, should we try and write this up as a more structured "feature
matrix" or suchlike?

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/