Re: [Usability] Find always under Edit menu? (Evolution)

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

(You do not seem to be subscribed to the Usability mailing list so I have
CC'ed both you and the list.)

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, Michael Wardle wrote:

> Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 08:49:02 +1000
> From: Michael Wardle <michael endbracket net>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Find always under Edit menu? (Evolution)
>
> Hi
>
> I've recently started using Novell Evolution 2.4, the latest version of
> the mail/groupware client that claims improved GNOME Human Interface
> Guidelines (HIG) support in its latest version.

I only have Evolution 2.2 but hopefully it will not matter in this case.

> Today I came across a large message, and wanted to search within it.
>
> This is how I found the find menu!
>
> 1.	Action: Press Control-F, knowing that many applications support this
> shortcut
> 	Result: Forwards a message

Mozilla Mail also uses Ctrl+F for Find so this does seem like a rather odd
choice inconsistent with the Gnome Guidelines amongst other things.
(Mozilla Mail uses Ctrl+L for Forward Message for what it is worth)

> 2.	Action: Press Control-E, knowing that Microsoft Outlook 2003 using
> this shortcut
> 	and that Evolution tries to mimic it
> 	Result: Expunges deleted messages from the current folder

Expunge harldy seems like something you should not ever need to do so
often you would want actually want keyboard shortcut.  It seems like a
misplaced optimisation and something which really should be taken care of
for you in the background or automatically recommended at some suitable
moment.

> 3.	Action: Click on the Search menu, believing Searching would be under
> the
> 	Search menu
> 	Result: No relevant items in this menu

Is it more or less confusing to have the same functionality in two places?
The Gnome Guidelines recommend against duplication.

It might make sense to put the search with the other Search functionality
if you are going to the effort of grouping all the search tools but that
brings us to your next question.

> 4.	Action: Click on the Edit menu, knowing that some applications have
> Find in there for reasons that are not obvious to me
> 	Result: Found the Find in Message menu item

Edit is as good a place as any to put Find if you do not have a whole
menu for Search.
If you are going to put an item here to meet user expectations I do not
understand why they didn't go the whole way and use exactly the label
users would expect and be scanning for namely "Find".  They could have
even used the GTK Stock item and got the standard translations for free
and exactly the keybinding you were expecting.

Ximian and Novell have professional usability experts and I really wonder
what their thoughts on this might be (if any of them still read this
list).

> The HIG says that the Find menu item should be under Edit, where
> Evolution currently has it
> (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/menus-standard.html#menu-standard-edit), but I find this very disjointed to have some Find/Search functionality under one menu and some under another.
>
> Does the HIG apply here, or would Evolution be better off moving the
> Find in Message menu item under Search?

In this particular case I would say yes.  (When Gedit created a Search
menu it moved all the Search functionality there.  Similarly applications
like Adobe Photoshop which have a seperate Select menu do not leave Select
All under the Edit menu.) However (given that Novell have professional
usability experts and I am currently unemployed I wouldn't rule out doing
things differently)  if it were part of a more comprehensive overhaul of
the Evolution user interface.

> Thanks

Haven't really answered your question have I?

I suppose if I had to tie it down a bit more my answer is yes, all the
search tools should be in the search menu but if it were up to me I'd like
to massively reevaluate the user interface used in Evolution.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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