Re: [Usability] Deep thoughts and proposal on the awful trashcan/eject issue (long)

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de>]

On Thu, May 05, 2005 at 08:56:59PM -0400, Jason Hoover wrote:


> Why is it, that when nautilus discovers, even knows, what the user is
> trying to do, that it tells the user "You shouldn't do that. you should
> do this instead"?

Right. This behaviour does not meat users expectations, as nobody 
will want to bring that message dialog up. An having to read / click 
that dialog is a waste of time.

I think it would be better to follow some user's expectation and 
make it work for ejecting, as I can't see an other outcome making 
sense here.

Back when I used Macs for the first time, I never had the idea to 
drag a floppy or cd to the trashcan, until I was told of that possibility 
and it's outcome. Afterwards I used it all the time, I couldn't care 
less about the strangeness of the metaphor, it just felt fast and  
easy.

Dragging things on the trashcan should always make them 'disappear'
(well, be put in the trashcan for normal files and folders, but that 
would be of no use for removable media, so the next best thing is 
ejecting). Being consistent as far as possible, in the bounds of 
what is practical / efficient.

For erasing / formating of media, the icon should stay (one might 
want to do something with the media afterwards). As dragging to 
the trashcan should result in removel, any association to formatting 
would be misplaced.


> I have the following proposal (these vary from my comments in the bug):
> 
> *Add an eject menu to the desktop action menu. This would allow a
> quicker way to eject things without needing to right click or go to the
> desktop or open "Computer" first.
> 
> *If the user uses the trash anyway, give them an informational box,
> containing something like the following:
> 
>     "It may be easier to use the "Eject" sub menu of the "Desktop" menu
> to eject instead."
>     "If you want to erase the volume, go to the floppy formatter or
> system settings."
>     "[toggle] Do the following by default:"
>     "[Eject anyway] [Cancel]"
> 
> *Add an option to gnome-volume-properties to change the default behavior
> for this action.


That's a bit much to read, presents options that can be avoided all 
together. It doesn't meat the expectations of those who know the Mac 
behaviour.


---
Thorsten Wilms