Re: [Usability] Double-click in notification area?

[Daniele Levorato <daniele levorato infocamere it>]

> It's better because
> 
> 1) it is faster and it includes less work 

Less work? a click more? less work... again, would you state that saving
time from avoiding doing another click could make me have more spare
time at work... and have a coffe-break more, once a year? wow, this is
application-ergony!
... ok, sorry for the irony, but talking about saving time or simplicity
in a single-click vs double click issue seems incredible...

Another thing is "consistency" that really have to be considered in
deep....

> 2) double-clicking is not too easy to do, until (if) you "master the mouse",
> and I too (used a mouse since -92) get it wrong every now and then (mostly 
> click-drag-click instead of click-click)

doing two clicks is so difficult?

> 3) it's more intuitive. Yes, my father and wife both have had trouble
> figuring out
> why "it didn't start when I clicked it" and after learning that they
> should double-click
> (and getting it wrong many times) they double-clicked on weblinks too. And, of
> course, were lost again when I told them to click just once there...

I've teached gnome to my mother (wich is not able to use a VCR!) and to
my father... they haven't seen windows before... they had no problem!
I've told them that when they have to work with "objects" (like desktop
items or nautilus files)" the click will select them since they are
"objects" and with them you can do many things... "double click only
when you're sure you want to activate them".
Menu, toolbar buttons, gnome-panel, web hyper-links are all "activation
actors" are no objects of any application (ok, we know it's not so, but
from their view point it works)

> 4) consitency
> 5) tell me more
> 
> 
> the cons are
> 
> 1) makes selecting a single file/object prone to erroneus launching
> 2) pisses off users who don't want to adjust their habits (and don't care
> to change the behaviour from settings)
> 3) tell me more
> 
> So far the single-click leads 4-2.

Uhmmm ... again from your viewpoint... from mine single click is still
at zero.

> And these really are my opinions. You think that pros 1, 2 and 4 are not an
> issue and I think that con 1 is not an issue, since ctrl-click selects
> an object as usual and because erroneus clicks are something that happens all the
> time anyway.

How did you explained to your father and wife the ctrl-click story... is
it simplier than explining a double click? hmmm....
Having a single-click in the desktop to run a heavy application by
mistake can be really annoiying... 
It's not true that "mistake happens anyway"... you can't solve an issue
with this fatalistic behaviour I think... one of the poupose of an
application designer is to limit user errors... they have to be
dummy-proof...
Let me say that "it's too much work to double a click" of your 1. is not
a good argumentation, the 2. is not so clear for me and 4. about
consistecy again not agree (your idea of consistency is different from
mine I think) and the cons 2. is very important... I'm an engineer and
usually  I project GUI... you can't understand the problems and barriers
that users (usual to certain GUI) can create when you try to change
it... they don't understand the new GUI is better in ergonomy... they
only have a "bad feeling". Immagine changing the click policy and trying
to explain that single click is really much better (and it isn't, and if
it is, it's not so evident).
Perhaps the difference is that I'm viewing the issue from a "pratical"
view point...

> > it would cause many user to move to another
> > desktop... I've seen many collegues to go back to Windows or to switch
> > to KDE for even less motivations...
> 
> I think you mean "not switch to gnome" here. I doubt that a new user would find
> single-clicking troubling.

You doubt... ok we can doubt that users would have problems... and we
can flame Microsoft Windows behaviour all the time... but even Microsoft
sometimes do some good things, we can't always deny only because it's
"Microsoft"... they tried to use single click and failed... and
MS-Windows has a real good influence on users... so Yes I think it would
be annoying for users... we have to learn from others errors, not
thinking superior saying "but we'll succeed where all the other failed".

Just look how many mails in this thread... this demonstrate that this
issue is very discussed! it's not so simple!

The best way is to let each one decide! So single-click or double-click,
with a per-user configuration.

> 
> > There're are so many things in which Gnome can "do something better"...
> 
> Yes, and this is one of them I think.

Well, there are things moooooore important, and with clearer advantages
for all than the "single vs. double", I think.


                                    
________________________________________________________________________
D a n i e l e  L e v o r a t o
InfoCamere S.c.p.A
049/82888681
System Engineer
Direzione Registro Imprese 
Team Middleware