Re: [Usability] Can the GNOME desktop survive an encounter with my parents?

[Vidar Braut Haarr <vhaarr+usability gmail com>]

On 8/26/05, Elijah Newren <newren gmail com> wrote:
> On 8/25/05, Vidar Braut Haarr <vhaarr+usability gmail com> wrote:
> <snip>
> > 17. Mom opens Thunderbird to send some e-mails. She minimizes
> > Thunderbird, locates a document and drags it to the trash to delete
> > it. After she has done this, she accidentally clicks again just to the
> > left of the trash, changing to Desktop 4 with the Workspace Switcher.
> > Unable to locate Thunderbird in the window switcher at the bottom, she
> > starts it again, only to be presented with Thunderbirds profile
> > chooser (since it was still running on Desktop 1).
> > When I arrive to fix this problem, I explain the concept of visual
> > desktops to my dad. He graps it, but finds it unusable since he has no
> > way of telling what the windows are by looking at their extremely
> > small boxes in the workspace switcher (the windows are not maximized,
> > so the application icon does not show inside the small boxes). He
> 
> Filed as http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94453.  However,
> not very high priority because the X extension work (e.g. luminocity
> and such) mean that we'll soon be able to do real thumbnails of the
> desktops instead of just showing application icons.

I'm not sure how much that would help, at least with the current size
of the workspace switcher. The windows would be so small that it would
be almost impossible to tell Firefox with about:cache and
gEdit/Evince/something from eachother.

> > opens the Workspace Switcher Properties dialog and looks over the
> > options, realising that he can give them names. He names them
> > "Internett", "E-mail" and "Other", and checks the option to show
> > desktop names in the switcher. Closing the dialog, he sees that he has
> > 4, but only needs 3. He rightclicks on the 4th desktop and clicks
> > "Remove from panel". This, of course, removes the entire applet,
> > confusing him again. I add it again and point him to the properties
> > dialog where he can adjust the number of virtual desktops, reducing it
> > to 3.
> >
> > 18. Having all his applications on one desktop, he now starts to drag
> > the windows to the Workspace Switcher to drop them on other desktops.
> 
> Which is filed as http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=143857.
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=96675 is somewhat similar
> (drag window buttons from window list to the workspace switcher).
> These and some other related bugs are being tracked in
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155908.  Additionally, maybe
> in the right-click or alt-space window menu we could show the
> keybindings for moving windows to other workspaces?

I do not think exposing these keybindings would solve any problems.
The only reason he used them were because I told him about them when I
noted his failure to drag a window to another desktop. I do not think
he has ever used the alt-space menu before, or indeed knew it existed.

> > This doesn't work, and I guide him to the context menu at the title
> > bar, and he uses the "Move to another desktop" menu to position
> > Firefox, Thunderbird and OOo Writer on the appropriate desktops. He
> > then asserts that the Window Switcher applet is now useless and
> 
> What do you mean by 'Window Switcher applet'?  Do you mean the Window
> List applet (really long applet with one button per window)?  The
> Window Selector applet (single icon on the panel that when clicked on
> shows a menu of windows)?  or the Workspace Switcher applet (array of
> workspace 'thumbnails' with all workspaces and the position and sizes
> of the windows shown)?

Yes, the really long applet with one button per window is what I meant :-)

-- 
Vidar Braut Haarr
"Programmers don't die, they
just GOSUB without RETURN."