Re: [Usability] Inlined Evolution 2 feedback

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004, Daniel J. Wilson wrote:

> Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 14:57:50 -0700
> From: Daniel J. Wilson <djw wilsonet com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Inlined Evolution 2 feedback
>
>
> > It is a little annoying when people post external links and dont
> > include
> > at least a preface or outline of their suggestions inline as it makes
> > it
> > much more awkward to respond to the points raised.
> >
> > I am saying this not to you specifically but because quite a few
> > people
> > have done it recently and I can only assume that people write to this
> > list
> > because they do want feedback and do want to ask questions in the best
> > way
> > possible in order to encourage the best kinds of answers.
>
> Being one of those people, I will keep this in mind for future feedback
> and apologize for breaking the feedback loop.  I have inlined my
> Evolution 2 feedback/suggestions below.

No need to apologize, it preffered but there are no rules (and I apologize
for my laziness).

I dont use Evolution myself which is the main reason I didn't respond to
your post (but linking to a binary file rather than HTML didn't encourage
me either).  The Evolution mailing lists really is the best place to send
most suggestions about Evolution but I've tried to respond to some of your
suggestions as best I can but they dont all strike me as usability
problems specifically and I haven't used Evolution enough -
least of all an up to date CVS version - to provide really good answers.

> The link to the related OpenOffice presentation file is:
>
> http://blog.wilsonet.com/mockups/Evolution2Suggestions.sxi
>
> A General Comment Regarding Toolbar Display
> The display of toolbars should be controllable in the manner of GEdit,
> which provides a sub-menu of the View menu that allows the user to pick

I thought there was functionality built into the widgets that allowed you
to right click on toolbars (specifically the gripper at the edge) to
adjust these features but althought that works in Gnumeric it is not
something that works consistantly in other applications but I wish it was.

Some way to access this functionality is necessary, but I am not sure
that it makes sense in larger busier applications like Evolution
to provide an extra submenu for it.  A single item for 'customize
menus' and a dialog might be a more elegant solution.

This might be worth adding to the HIG but in the short term a feature
request against Evolution seems like the best way to go.

> Style” makes more sense than the GEdit title: “Customize Toolbar".
> Customize implies (to me) the user modifying the button set or
> rearranging existing buttons - changing the display style is more
> descriptive of what the controls actually do.

In future when the toolbars are properly customizable all this
functionatity could be put in the one dialog.  The current label is not
ideel but I wouldn't change it.

>      1. An “Ignore Thread” menu option (probably implemented as a menu
>         toggle) would be nice, automatically marking existing and
>         subsequent messages in a selected thread as Read.

sounds like a straight forward feature request.  is there not already
functionality that would cover this, a way to select multiple messages and
mark them all as Read?


>      3. The Send button in message composition windows should be dimmed
>         until one or more recipients are chosen or input by the user.

presumably if you hit send without having filled in a sender you are given
feedback?
if the button was greyed out this useful functionality wouldn't be
possible



>      4. The Contact Editor

>              2. Keyboard navigation of the available text fields is
>                 somewhat unpredictable in the Mailing Address tab;
>                 Return and tab work like they do in a text editing
>                 application when the Address box has focus, but they
>                 change field focus and activate the default button when
>                 other fields have input focus. The most logical solution
>                 would be to force the Address box to use the same key
>                 behaviors. The HIGrecommendation is for the Return key
>                 to move among fields in this kind of data input
>                 scenario, but I think using the Tab key makes more sense
>                 - it is commonly used in other desktop environments and
>                 in web forms for field navigation. Return should
>                 activate the default button.

sound like a ui/usability bug alright,
a report in bugzilla with a specific reference to the HIG will probably
help the evolution developers

>              5. Zip is an abbreviation for Zoning Improvement Plan, so
>                 it should be capitalized as ZIP.

I despise acronyms and other assorted jargon but it could be argued that
"Zip Code" has taken on a meaning of its own like scuba, radar,
gnome, and to put it in uppercase only invites questions about what
it stands for.  Other words like "email" have evolved and been simplified
from e-mail (was it ever E-Mail or e-Mail?), so I'd bend the rules here
and keep it simple.

A more likely probley is that Zip Code is meaningless in some English
speaking locales and "Area Code" would be a much clearer more approriate
and descriptive generic term.  (We do have very simple area codes in
Ireland and the UK has more complicated ones but I dont think any of us
describe them as Zip codes).

> Calendars
>      1. It would be great if the view switching toolbar buttons more
>         clearly indicated the active mode. This could be done by
>         coloring the active icon and/or adding a frame around it. See
>         Slide #2.

Colour indicators can be problematic but I wont go into it (and from
the next line I can see you have some awareness of the issues, combining
colours with textures or using text labels usually works).

>      2. The red text coloring of the current day in the month view is
>         deficient in several ways. First, red is one color that some
>         people with colorblindness cannot see well. Second, it just
>         doesn’t stand out, even with normal spectrum vision. I suggest

Good luck in your efforts to improve Evolution, I expect their team will
be very interested to hear your suggestions (although perhaps not all at
once, you have clearly given it a lot of thought).

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
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