[Usability] Re: Suggestion for the actual UI of GTK+'s New FileSelector

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Tue, 2004-01-06 at 21:54, Eugenia Loli-Queru wrote:
> Sean Middleditch wrote:
> >Second, the layout makes file selection look and feel like a series of
> steps.
> 
> This should be the idea, yes. To guide the user to what and how to do next.

again, as i stated, i think that's a *bad* thing.  it's guiding users
thru steps they in most cases don't need.  it also gives it a bit of
either a toolbar feel (which it acts nothing like, of course) or as if
it is somehow a huge vital important required step, which it isn't - I
honestly suspect it will be very rarely used except for accessing
removal media, which isn't all that common. (at least, in my personal
experience.  most of my "external" documents are sent to me by email in
personal situation, or stored on company file servers in work
situation.)

perhaps some tests/studies should be done on this - both of us are just
guessing at which way is better.  i don't know that there is time for
anyone with the skill and inclination to put together a proper usability
test for this, tho, before gtk 2.4 is shipped.

i'm probably a little biased here, but I believe it would be wiser to go
with a slightly more conventional and familiar interface until such a
study could be carried out - we risk shipping a major release with a
possibly very unintuitive interface based solely on a hunch and
guesswork, one which wouldn't even have the advantage of, "this is
familiar, im comfortable with this" on the user end.

on an unrelated note, what is the reason for the "view as list"
drop-down in Erick's mockup?  if there is the possibility of switching
between list and icon view, shouldn't it just use the nautilus settings
for doing so for consistency?  i know its rather irritating how, say,
file-roller behaves completely differently from my nautilus settings
(list view instead of icon view, double click instead of single click) -
having 3 different components that all act different really can't be a
good thing.

> 
> >The default location upon opening should be the most likely place the
> document will be found
> 
> Sure, there is no problem on adding this feature on my suggestion. It
> wouldn't destroy the flow.
> 
> >This one is very similar to Eugenia's
> 
> Yes, I did my mockup and then sent it to Erick before the article went live.
> Then Erick did his own modifications on my mockup.
> 
> >but the favorites list is put along the side, which feels more natural, and
> is also much more aesthetically pleasing.
> 
> I agree that it might look better. But this is because this is the layout we
> have got used to with all other OSes using it this way. My top-down logic

this isn't *just* file dialogs.  it's *all* dialogs and windows.  this
topic has been discussed to death on the usability list, and I believe
its also brought up in the HIG.  layouts that don't fit into the golden
aspect ratio are not at all visually pleasing.

> flow I think can be more productive rather than left-to-right-down-down.
> Also, I do not agree on putting the newfolder/showallfiles under the main
> gtk file selector.

it seems cluttered, having two rows of buttons ontop of one another, but
then it clashed in a similar way wish the navigation list buttons too. 
is there any non-aesthetic arguments to have them above or below?

> 
> Eugenia
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-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.