Re: [Usability] New "Add to panel" dialog

[Diego Moya <turingt gmail com>]

On 20/10/05, Manu Cornet <Manu Cornet gmail com> wrote:
>
> Hi !
>
> I have been working on a new version of the "add to panel" dialog, for
> the Ubuntu distro. This dialog is already available by default in the
> new Ubuntu "Breezy Badger" version.
>

Good work! I liked the previous version, and now that I've updated to
Breezy I like the new one too. Incremental search and categories
provide great advantage in scanning for a particular widget. I don't
feel that the 2D layout brings any usability improvements. though. I
preferred the linear layout since its easier to do a complete scan.



> * Although the current categories and applets organization is the result
> of a serious mind job (and I find them quite logical), this can be
> modified extremely easily (as a matter of fact, apart from the few
> "internal" applets, categories do not actually belong to the panel's code).

You should really perform an "open" card sorting. It's a technique for
solving just this problem. With at least 15 users you can get an
adequate categories list.

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide.php
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040719.html

Also several tools for doing a software-based card sorting:
http://condor.depaul.edu/~jtoro/cardzort/cardsorting.htm
http://uzilla.mozdev.org/cardsort.html


>
> What do you think of this new dialog ? Do you see any other possible
> enhancements ?

It doesn't work for the task of adding *several* new applets. It
shouldn't close when you press the + button, and the "Cancel" button
should be renamed "Close". It's far easier pressing "Close" if you
wanted to add a single applet that reopen the dialog and then scroll
to the same point if you want to add another one.



On 20/10/05, Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie> wrote:
> Calum Benson commented on this before and I will repeat my comments at
> from the time.  Both the current dialog and new dialog you are proposing
> are trying to deal with the problem of large collection of applets and I
> feel neither succeed with this very well.  Unless the number of applets
> can be kept much much smaller I'm a whole lot happier with the using menus
> and submenus as older versions of Gnome used to do.

Submenus are a usability nightmare - they're hard to navigate both for
they're difficult to open with the mouse and because they hide their
contents from sight. I prefer a  plain list of big icons anyday.

>
> I can certainly agree there is a problem here but I dont think any of the
> proposed solutions have been substantially better and none of them
> do very well if you allow a large set of applets.
>

A solution for many items would be to maintain the current form and
provide a list of hyperlinks to the categories. The redundant indexing
of Search and this "Table of Contents" would support both possible
uses of browsing and looking for a specific item.