Re: [Usability] "About" menu items galore...

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, Jason Hoover wrote:

> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:14:36 -0400
> From: Jason Hoover <jasonhoover verizon net>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] "About" menu items galore...
>
>
> > Yeah that too.  It almost goes without saying.
> >
> > I love being thanked for my efforts and some projects have an extensive
> > list of people they thank, anyone who has ever provide a line of code
> > or filed a bug report in one or two rare cases.  Others only mention
> > the maintainers (a missed opportunity in my humble opinion).
>
> How about the bug testers and usability folks too? ;-)

Freeciv has an extensive list for every release which thanks a vast array
of contributors of all kinds, I don't I have ever seen any other project
which goes to such lengths to thank all stakeholders for getting involved.

If I ever get around to creating an application worth
inflicting^H^H^H^H^H^H releasing to the public I would use the Authors
list to indicate only those who have a Copyright stake in the software and
have a really long list of thanks that would be only slightly shorter than
your average changelog.  I would expect most users to ignore the Credits
section of the About dialog though.  I would want to make sure to provide
the application name, what it does (eg Number Puzzle) and the version
information and contact information (list address because it is reasonably
permanent) and website address (preferably Gnome.org so it can be
centrally maintained and redirected to the most up to date source because
old binaries with obselete links survive long after web pages have moved).

> [Note: The following crit^H^H^H^H rant is from the Joe Point-'n'-grunt
> perspective, it is not meant to be a troll or a flame. It is intended as
> tounge-in-cheek criticism. Thank you.]

> I agree, myself, but it almost seems a bit excessive to have one for
> every single applet. About-Panels, About-Show-Desktop-button,
> About-Window-switcher, About-task-panel, About-notification-area,
> About-clock. About clock? Does the clock really need it's own 32bpp SVG
> image and an about dialogue?

It is kind cool for contributors to be able to show orindary users "I did
that" and a well written About Dialog provides genuinely usefuly
information even if you have nuked your documentation.

Even if we wanted to remove all the about dialogs from the applets it
could be politically difficult to do and and I must make it absolutely
clear I think it is more important to fix the about dialogs to actually
include helpful information and relevant coherent descriptions that
actually tell you what the program is about.

We could set a Gnome standard and try to insist anything included in Gnome
would have to follow the applet rules but we have never worked that way
before and I think it would be a really terrible idea to try and start
that more authoritarian road to managing Gnome.

(This is all just wild speculation so please do not respond with your own
questions and if and buts and conspiracy theories on this.  I'm pretty
sure this is something that will not happen but it nonetheless interesting
to talk about if we can keep the discussion sane and civilised.)

> Why does the about box say "Copyright FSF" but the manual say "Sun
> Microsystems?" (A good example of under-maintained documentation)

Documentation is owned by someone else.  This could stand to be made
clearer in some cases and a section on the program copyright could be
included in the doucmentations as well.  (I wonder how much disk space
could be saved by having a standard folder containing all the licensese
instead of repeating them in every About Dialog and in every program
manual and in some cases ever file of source code.)

> It brings up another issue, there seems to be no standard when it comes
> to the order of that menu. Some have it at the top, some at the bottom,

Panel menu ordering is about putting the most important items in the prime
locations.  (On any menu the top and bottom position are usually easiest
places to target.) The About menu item is not very important and will get
bumped around in favour of more important items.  When coming up with a
recommend layout (hint) and filing a bug report (hint, hint) you should
keep this in mind and be careful developers understand when they can break
your guidelines on the suggested order for context menuitems in applets.

> Does the HIG have any kind of recommendations for consistency of panel
> applets? It appears to be an area that's a bit on the lame side outside
> of a few key points. Would Gnome panels benefit from more specific
> recommendations?

Calum overlord of all usability will know! (Seems like Calum is running a
one man show at the moment but perhaps there are other paid professionals
still working away more quietly on Gnome usability.)

> So, let's see, so far I've got inconsistent;
>
> 1) Tool tips.
> 2) Documentation locations.
> 3) Documentation.
> 4) Placement of menu items.
> 5) Options.
> 6) Appearance.
>
> Oy, what a mess. Though, this is just one unhelpful man's opinion. Take
> it with a grain or two of salt.

Patches welcome ;)

Sincerely

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