Re: [Usability] Default Panel Layout

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005, [ISO-8859-1] BJörn Lindqvist wrote:

> Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:26:45 +0200
> From: "[ISO-8859-1] BJörn Lindqvist" <bjourne gmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Default Panel Layout
>
> > NB for everyone on the list: I've already had one of our more
> > experienced usability people tell me he is sick of arguing about
> > defaults for panels/menus/etc., so let's try extra hard in this
> > conversation to keep the signal-noise ratio high- try reducing the
> > number of 'me toos' and sticking very close to the core issue. No pie
> > in the sky for now- just what we have and what we can do now. [Not a
> > specific critique of you, Alan, just that you're the first post in
> > this thread since I had that conversation.]
>
> This might be the "pie in the sky" you warned about: But since no shoe
> fits them all, why not provide the user with several panel layouts
> that can be selected when gnome is installed or first started?

One size may not fit all but I am glad Gnome tries very hard to provide
the best possible desktop for the most people possible.  Lots of different
profiles seems like a cop-out and those kinds of questions at startup are
immensely annoying (thankfully it is something most sensible applications
have stopped doing since Gnome 1.4).  Some Distributions have different
install types so if you are dertermined to ask these kinds of questions it
might be more approriate to ask them at install time rather than at
runtime, if you are choosing a selection of packages for Developement it
would be likely that you want easy access to those tools.

Having said that I've been using the same desktop layout for quite a long
time and it remains largely unaffected but upgrades so I would be
surprised if anyone calling themselves a developer didn't have things
already configured as how they like it.  Experienced users may complain
louder but it is no great hardship for them to add a panel shortcut
compared to the potential confusion it causes ordinary users to have it
there.

The different needs of developers, office workers, home users and others
does make me wish we had a few archetypes or personas to work off of but I
have no one to blame but myself for not attempting to create them.

Sincerely

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