Re: [Usability] gThumb UI changes

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de>]

On Tue, May 25, 2004 at 11:27:42AM -0400, Jason Tackaberry wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 11:17 +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> > Folders and Catalogs are on another level. Image mode should be handled 
> > independently from them.
> 
> I disagree.  While they are implemented on "another level," conceptually
> they're not really.  gThumb's view menu has a grouping of 3 items,
> Folders, Images, and Catalogs, each with the accelerators alt-1, alt-2,
> and alt-3 respectively.  To my mind, this establishes to the user three
> primary modes of gthumb, where each of them are (again, conceptually) on
> the same level.  Selecting any of these options from the menu (or using
> their accelerator) changes gthumb's layout significantly enough that
> they "feel" like different modes.

Sorry, but your wrong!
- Folders and Catalogues are about accessing image collections
- Folders and Catalogues are exclusive
- Images is an alternative layout
- In Images mode either Folders or Catalogues mode are still active. There's 
either the Folders or the Catalogues Icon in the toolbar to switch back. 
And of course you browse through the contents of the Folder/Catalogue that 
was selected.

So it can hardly be argued about Image not being on another (conceptional) 
level!

The illusion of 3 real modes by grouping in menu and the shorcut series 
is a problem. The solution can not be trying to further hide the true 
nature of things, but must be to change the ui to reflect the underlying 
concepts.

 
> Things are blurred a bit, however, depending on the layout you're using.
> If you use the default layout, layout 3 (folders left top, image preview
> left bottom, thumbnails right full height), then Image mode differs
> enough from Folders/Catalogs mode to feel like you're in a different
> area of the program.  That fact that the toolbar changes as well
> strengthens this perception.
> 
> However, with layout 1 (folders top left, thumbnails bottom left, image
> preview right full height), going into image mode simply makes it look
> like you're closing or hiding the side pane, and making the image
> preview occupy the full window.  This isn't the case, however, because
> again the toolbar changes, and also the icons on the info bar changes.
> (As far as gthumb's implementation is concerned, in fact this _is_
> what's happening, but the UI changes enough that this does feel like
> another mode.)


But it shouldn't feel like a totaly different mode, because this is what 
will confuse the user and makes him feel lost!

 
> So, because the View menu has a grouping of Folders (alt-1), Catalogs
> (alt-2), Images (alt-3), and because the UI changes significantly enough
> when you select each of the three items, it certainly does feel to me
> that these are three distinct modes.  And because the menu has all
> three, so too I think should the toolbar, because it gives the user
> obvious feedback when he changes modes (by double clicking a thumbnail,
> for example, he goes to image view mode, and the toolbar will reflect
> that by depressing the Image button in my proposal).

You would have to communicate that Folders/Catalogs are mutualy exclusive
and Image works with on top of them. How are you going to accomplish this 
with 3 toolbar buttons in line?


> > If Folders and Catalogs will be kept seperated, tabs might be a solution. 
> > Because only that part of the screen is affected.
> 
> I don't like this idea at all.  A tab bar will waste a significant
> amount of screen real-estate.  I suppose that could be solved by putting
> the tabs inside the side panel only, however this only really makes
> sense when you use layout 1.

Of course only inside the panel!
I see no reason why this would be a problem in any of the layouts.


---
Thorsten Wilms