[Usability] Re: Faded File Extensions

[Corey Burger <corey burger gmail com>]

On 12/23/05, Nigel Tao <nigel tao myrealbox com> wrote:
> When showing files, one theory is that you show the ".txt" and ".png"
> extensions, since they are the true filename, and another theory says
> that you should hide them, since they are 'scary technical details' that
> Joe User shouldn't have to deal with.
>
> I just had an idea - what if combined both ideas rather than either one
> or the other?  Nautilus already makes the distinction when renaming a
> file (it selects only the "foo" of "foo.txt"), so should we also make
> the same distinction when showing a file's name?
>
> I've made a mock-up - does anyone think that this is worth pursuing?
>
> http://browserbookapp.sourceforge.net/misc/faded-file-extensions.png

Sorry, but I think this idea is bad. Most users are going to look at
the pretty icon anyway. If we can get that right, we are off to the
races.

So any hiding/dimming merely pisses off the above average user and
doesn't actually solve anything for the newer user.

Corey