Re: [Usability] gThumb UI changes

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de>]

On Mon, May 24, 2004 at 12:46:59PM -0400, Jason Tackaberry wrote:

> The main problem I've noticed is that this new user had significant
> troubles determining that there are really three primary modes in
> gthumb: folders, catalogs, image.   The Folders / Catalogs modes are
> much clearer, but the Image mode can be rather confusing and
> inconsistent.

Folders and Catalogs are on another level. Image mode should be handled 
independently from them.

And how about placing catalogs directly in the filesystem? They could 
be organized in folders. Backup would be simpler. Filling them by 
drag'n'drop would be so much easier than using a dialog like now. 
And the Folder/Catalog mode distinction would disappear.
Idealy the catalogs would work in Nautilus, too.


> The user's main frustration is that key buttons on the toolbar move
> around depending on the mode.  He further became frustrated when
> clicking on the Folders button when already in Folders mode did
> something completely unexpected: it made the folders go away, and moved
> the Folders button on the toolbar from underneath his cursor.


If Folders and Catalogs will be kept seperated, tabs might be a solution. 
Because only that part of the screen is affected.

Image mode could be transformed into mini-/maximizing the image pane.

 
> He also expressed confusion over the back/forward buttons.  After having
> gone from Folders mode to Catalogs mode, he clicked the Back button,
> expecting it to take him back to Folders mode, except that the Back
> button was disabled.  (He didn't immediately understand that
> Back/Forward/Up/Home applied only to folders, not modes and images as
> well.)

 
>      1. Because back/forward/up/home buttons apply only to navigating
>         folders/catalogs, I suggest removing these buttons from the
>         primary toolbar, and creating a secondary toolbar in the
>         folders/catalogs pane with these buttons.  This will more
>         tightly couple the relationship between these buttons and
>         navigating the folders/catalogs.

Yes, I would suggest the same.

>      2. Move the Folders and Catalogs togglebuttons on the main toolbar
>         to the left, add a third togglebutton "Images" to more clearly
>         define the three possible modes.  These buttons must never go
>         away, or move around, or become disabled.  Although these 3
>         buttons are in fact toggle button widgets, they should behave
>         like radio buttons.  Only one of them can be active (pressed) at
>         one time, but clicking a currently active button shouldn't do
>         something strange like make that mode go away -- it should do
>         nothing.  This is pretty much what I've argued in bug 143023.  I
>         see these mode buttons the same as Evolution 1.5's
>         Mail/Contacts/Calendar/Tasks buttons: specifically, the behave
>         like a radio button group, and they never move around.

I wouldn't work well with the 3 modes, because what we realy have now is 
Folder, Catalog, Image from Folder and Image from Catalog mode.

>      3. In image mode, the prev/next buttons should be moved to the far
>         left (to the right of the three mode buttons, separated of
>         course by a toolbar separator).  These buttons are navigation
>         buttons, and I think make more sense to be the first group of
>         all the image-view-specific buttons.

The prev/next buttons should be present outside of image mode, too.

>      4. When no image is selected, the preview pane should have a
>         generic "gthumb" logo image of some sort, to at least provide
>         some visual indication as to the purpose of the pane.  Otherwise
>         when the user first starts gthumb, he sees an empty pane and he
>         may have the impression something is broken.  (This was my test
>         user's first reaction.)  I'm not an artist, so maybe we can ask
>         the community for some help with creating a nice looking image
>         for this purpose.

Good idea.


---
Thorsten Wilms