Re: [Usability] Hiding options from users?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005, Sven Jaborek wrote:

> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:30:24 +0200
> From: Sven Jaborek <sven lug-dorsten gmx de>
> To: Usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Hiding options from users?
>
> Hi list,
>
> what usability philosphie is this?

"Try stuff without testing it thorougly because it was impossible to get
peopel to agree on anything" philosophy.  ;)

Essentially there was a new better API and a new file chooser was needed
too.  There were many suggestions presented some of which were conflicting
(repeated suggestions about getting rid of the file chooser entirely were
particularly unhelpful).  I think a lot of interesting ideas were tried
some of which worked and others which didn't.  That the new file chooser
did poorly at some of the tasks the old file chooser did well also hurt
acceptance.

Software developement is not Rocket Science and in Open Source it is
better to get something done and improve it later than waiting for
perfection which may never arrive.  Eventually decisions had to be made
and the developers were right to do so.  Various improvements have been
made since and I hope and expect more will be made and maybe someone will
carry out the random threats of a desktop wide standard file chooser
(unlikely but not impossible).

The new API made it possible for others to write their own file choosers
while still following the standard API which is something I believe hardly
anyone has done with the exception of GPE (Gnome Palmtop Enviroment).

> The file-open dialog shows a text-field by pressing ctrl-l, without a
> button or menu that would make it possible to open it if you dont know.
> Since lots of people, like me, will miss the text-box when they see the
> new dialog, it should not such a secret.

For various reasons which I have explained before (and it is all too
easily to point out in hindsigh) I'm firmly of the belief we got some
things backwards and an approach more like Mac OS would have been better.
(The simple first dialog it presents is more like the Location entry,
giving power and flexibility to those who might need it for accessibility
reasons and encouraging everyone else to use the file manager or drag and
drop to open things).

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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