Re: [Usability] My second file chooser proposal

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Magnus Bergman wrote:

> > > >   A human scans through information in this order, therefore the
> > > >   widgets should be placed in this order. (See my previous mail
> > > >   for more details.)
> > >
> > > Minor nitpick - I don't think all humans scan in this order; just
> > > those
> >
> > As far as I knew scan order is entirely cultural and based on reading.

> Are you sure it's entirely based on reading? I've came across theories

No, but I'll give good odds.

I must have read it _somewhere_ or possibly watched it on Open University
or something.

> this, don't hesitate to tell me.) What I really want to say is that it's
> PERHAPS not safe to assume that it is appropriate to "mirror" the gui if
> the direction of the text is right to left.

I think it is a decision best left to Asian Gnome developers but keeping
the user interface almost exactly the same means that some users (me) can
navigate a system in an entirely foreign language with help from icons and
standard positioning.

Frankly I dont think Microsoft or Apple could deal with developing and
supporting a substantially different user interface for Asian users.

> You don't have some pointers to this? It would be very interesting to
> look at. It would help to know what their Windows verison look like if I
> find some Asian people to discuss this subject with.

Please do, feedback from a wide variety of cultures is always great.

> > Japanese goes in columns from top to bottom, right to left.
>
> Both text in columns and rows exist. I think rows are slowly taking

apparently almost all the young people write in rows, and when the paper
is already lined that way it is easier.

> > I would not be surprised if Asian designers wanted to come up with
> > designs that better suited their culture.  At this stage there must be
> > quite a few cultural oddities in Gnome we dont even realise.
>
> Yes, I know there are. What different colors, in the stock icons,
> represents for example (in Japan they have blue traffic lights). At same

That is so interesting, never knew that before and next time I see
something about Japan on TV I'll be looking for it.

> and might be very good to base icons on. Maybe I will try to contact
> some of the gnome projects Japanese translators about opinions about
> this matter.

I'm sure they will, what little translation work I did tried to do taught
me how hard it is to do well.  In some cases I'm sure this will work but
in most case I expect the glyph would be too abstract or abiguous.


- Alan