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

[Marc O'Morain <marc omorain gmail com>]

Hi all,

Drawing inspiration from the drive mount applets, and the MS Windows
way of dealing with removable media, how about the following proposal:

1. Require that users have a system tray on their panel.
2. When a removable drive is inserted (and automatically mounted), an
icon that represents the device will appear in the system tray. When a
camera is inserted a camera icon is used, when a USB pen drive is
inserted, a little USB drive icon is shown.
3. If the user clicks on the icon, a menu opens, allowing the user to
open the device in the file manager, to 'stop' the device for safe
removal.
4. If the user clicks the stop menu item, the icon is removed from the
panel, and a message box appears saying the device has been stopped
correctly, and that it is now safe to remove the device.
5. If the user removes the device without stopping it first, a message
box appears telling the user not to do that again, showing them a
picture of the icon and the 'stop this device' menu item highlighed,
so that they will know what to do in future.

Notes:
Rather than 'unmount', Windows users the term 'stop the device'. I
know a lot of non-technical Windows users, and none of them are
confused by the metaphor of having to "stop" a removable device. The
'Safely Remove Hardware' applet in the Window's system tray is very
badly designed however.

Best Regards,

Marc O'Morain