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

[Eric Larson <elarson novell com>]

On Fri, 2005-10-21 at 20:47 +0200, Murray Cumming wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-10-21 at 10:50 -0400, Eric Larson wrote:
> [snip]
> > I think this makes a ton of sense. Users
> > are only becoming more and more exposed to massive amounts of data so
> > new techniques are being developed to handle this. Search is quickly
> > becoming key and contextual search has been found to be effective means
> > of implementing it. Creating a standard interface for selection and
> > searching makes this even more helpful to user (especially considering
> > unknown interface needs). 
> > 
> > One can argue that this is overkill for the applet selection.
> [snip]
> 
> Yes, this is silly. Just because some things are becoming more
> complicated doesn't mean that it's a good idea to make still-simple
> things complicated too.


I actually do not believe this makes the applet dialog any more
complicated than it already is. I do think it adds more information, but
the result would be something more clear and descriptive. The current
state of the dialog simply is a big list that really doesn't give the
user anything other than way to scan and choose. On the other hand
adding categories and search would allow the user to learn what kinds of
applets there are. 

Also, the current state of panel is very confusing. While it is very
flexible, there are so few constraints that panels can quickly become a
big mess of launchers, applets and trays. To add to the confusion, you
can never tell what applets are currently on a panel. It can also be
unclear what an applet is. Simply say "Add to panel..." is not clearest
language to convey that you can peripheral applications that sit on your
panel to help you do your work. My point here is that allowing the user
to understand more about the system works goes a long way to helping the
user learn how to use the system. Providing information does not make
things more complicated.

Eric