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

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005, Manu Cornet wrote:

> Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:35:56 +0200
> From: Manu Cornet <Manu Cornet gmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] New "Add to panel" dialog
>
>
>
> Hi !
>
> > Hmmmmm... that let me wondering if we could just merge your "quick
> > discoverability" requirement with my Table of Contents links idea.
> > What if rolling over the links activate a search for just that
> > category? Thus moving the mouse over the ToC would do the quick scan
> > of all categories. A mockup:
>
> Aren't these kinds of interfaces (links, table of contents, etc.) a
> little too tricky for quite a simple dialog,

Yes but ...

The Unix philosophy of everything is a file has implications even for
graphical user intefaces.  With the big icons and drag and drop we are
effectively making this look more and more like a nautilus view of a
folder.  The added complexity should be making things more like the basic
interfaces (file management, web browser) which users are familiar with
and this added complexity is not as bad as it might seem.

> agree if we were searching among hundreds of applets, but here I really

The applets list was scaled back a bit but it still quite long and has a
tendecy to get longer so a smarter design must take into account the
inevitable creepage.

> don't think it is necessary, and I feel it makes the dialog more
> complicated instead of more simple...

the dialog is already complicated, so drag and drop and searching seem
very necessary rather than merely complications

> I guess it would be more suitable for Beagle-like software ?

Aside from the polictal implications of adopting Mono how would Beagle
be anything more than another search interface?

- Alan