Re: [Usability] Can't Handle it anymore! (Consistent toolbars?)

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005, David Christian Berg wrote:

> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 02:27:24 +0200
> From: David Christian Berg <david sipsolutions net>
> To: Samuel Abels <newsgroups debain org>
> Cc: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>, usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Can't Handle it anymore!  (Consistent toolbars?)
>
> On Wed, 2005-03-30 at 00:40 +0200, Samuel Abels wrote:
> > On Tue, 2005-29-03 at 22:35 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > > I've noticed that developers are increasingly getting rid of the
> > > GtkHandleBox from their application toolbars. Was this a conscious
> > > decision, was there some sort of plan (a detail in the HIG update I
> > > missed?) or did lots of developers all independantly come to the same
> > > conclusion that it was a waste of space?
> >
> > I am one of those developers, my decision was mainly based on the fact
> > that I believe toolbars to be a very technical thing providing only
> > insignificant improvement - you can do the same without the box, and
> > without the handle the windows IMO look better and even easier to use
> > (considering that less widgets = more usability).
>
> Sorry, but I don't agree with doing it this way. If somebody doesn't
> like the shadow on toolbars, they should create a theme that just
> doesn't draw one. With this all applications will be consistent.
> Personally I like the shadow and wouldn't want to miss it.

Less is more, but in this case what you need is not less widgets but less
custom widgets.  Using more standard widgets and standard themes we get a
conistent desktop and a clean interface with better usabilility, or more
importantly when we need to fix usability mistakes you and your standard
widgets will benefit from them along with everyone else.


Boilerplate: I'm answering a bunch of different questions and I've
resisted the temptation to cram them into one mail, instead I'm adding
this boilerplate conclusion to save people reading all my other warblings.
At this point I need to file HIG bugs, a bug against gnome-ui-proprerties
(and hopefully a patch) and then bring this all to the attention of
developers, either through one of the lists or individual bug reports.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time and showing an interest in this
discussion.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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