Re: Workspaces [Re: [Usability] nautilus, panel, and metacity not acting as if the desktop was a single entity]

[Eric Larson <elarson novell com>]

On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 16:37 +0100, Phil Bull wrote: 
> On 7/13/05, Eric Larson <elarson novell com> wrote:
> > But, I do think that pushing the user to consider grouping their
> > applications would be a worthwhile task to gain the advantages
> > of workspaces.
> 
> This is just introducing extra window-management workload for the
> user, and I'm not sure the advantages will outweigh this disadvantage
> (especially for novice users). Besides, is it right to try and push
> the user into one way (your way?) of working? Surely it would be
> better to accommodate/allow different styles of working, so that the
> user can do things in whatever way feels most comfortable to them?
> 

I think you might be missing my point here. I am not suggesting that we
force the use to group applications. I am instead suggesting that we
allow users another conceptual model for workspaces. Currently, the idea
of workspaces just extending the desktop makes a good deal of sense
while others fail to see the value in it. If we suggest to the user that
they can group their apps according to how they work, this does
essentially the same things as workspaces, yet offers another conceptual
model. I realize this may seem confusing, but considering most novice
users do not use such a feature, it seems that it is a reasonable means
to help users find a potentially helpful tool. The goal here is then to
help users discover workspaces. It would not be for forcing users to
user them.

> App grouping is potentially a pretty rigid organisational concept (as
> mentioned before, group-by-task or group-by-type), so I'm not sure if
> everyone will enjoy using it. I mean, look what happened with spatial
> nautilus...not all users like it, so their desktop experience has, to
> them, been degraded. Just because you like one way of working and it
> suits you doesn't mean other others will, and this has always been the
> problem with user interface design.
> 

Again, it would be crucial to allow the user to see that they can
customize this sort of tool. This is not to say that there should be an
infinite amount of customizable aspects but rather that they can use the
available options. A good example would be naming a workspace. I hope
this clears up what I was talking about. I agree that it is not good
force the user to work a certain way. The overarching goal here is to
empower the user with the excellent tools found in the GNOME desktop.

Eric