Re: [Usability] [RFC] Gnumeric Cell Format dialog simplification approach

[Elijah P Newren <newren math utah edu>]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Christian Neumair wrote:

> Hi folks!
> I'm currently trying to rework part of Gnumeric's user interface of CVS
> HEAD. Jody and I couldn't find a consensus on whether to use
> GtkRadioButtons or GtkComboBoxes for cell alignment formatting.

I know you were probably looking for expert opinions, but I thought I'd
chime in anyway.  :)  I hope my response is helpful.

The RadioButton layout makes me think that it is expected that users
will be changing each of those options frequently (there are, after all,
a lot more widgets and text being shown in order to accomplish
the same task).  If the users do indeed change the options in that screen
really often then this layout would make it faster for the end user.

The disadvantage of the RadioButton layout is that it requires the user
to look at each of the options and understand them--or at least to think
about them.  I did.  Not only does this take time, but if the user
doesn't understand some of them they can begin to feel frustrated and/or
overwhelmed.  (Personally, I don't understand what "General", or "Center
across selection" are supposed to mean, and that made me hesitate.)  The
problem can also occur in the ComboBox layout, but since the options are
partially hidden in that scenario, it makes it feel ok to me to not
understand some of the options.

I see this mostly as an ease-of-learning versus efficiency with the
product question, but I really don't see the efficiency gains being
very substantial for such a task.  Then again, maybe that's just because
I don't use spreadsheets very much.


Elijah