Re: [Usability] Pathbuttons-Field

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006, Tomasz Janowitz wrote:

> Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 18:35:29 +0100
> From: Tomasz Janowitz <logan77 o2 pl>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: Usability gnome conference <usability gnome org>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Pathbuttons-Field
>
> Alan Horkan wrote:
> >

> > I'll try not to comment on this discussion

^^ brevity never was my strongest point ;)


> > I'd be far better off with an small UP button (possibly one including a
> > drop down to allow access to futher up the folder tree).
>
> I get your point. But instead of ditching the whole idea, maybe some we can
> work out some solution to this ? :

Maybe I should have saved that comment for another discussion.

I didn't like the Path buttons idea, never have but I was interested to
try it.  Since users will need to learn a bit about paths in the form of
web addresses I would prefer not to hide the idea behind an abstraction.

> > I'm glad we experimented but I think we will eventually need to reconsider
> > and drop the whole path button idea.
>
> I beg you reconsider.

I'm only stating my opinion.

I'm still hoping someone (mabye even me) will take advantage of the File
Chooser API and write their own custom File Chooser.  You could say GPE
and Hildon done so already but I dont know of any desktop distribution to
have done so yet (and I have not heard anything recently about the ideas
which might have to allowed the KDE File Chooser to work against the Gtk
File Chooser API).

> > "What I'm saying is that right and wrong here is 100% relative to the
> > decision on specifically what GNOME is doing for specifically which
> > users."
> >
> > "If you debate some microdetail like whether to expose paths before

Expose paths or not?  I took "not" to mean the current use of the Path
buttons ("trail of breadcrumbs").

You could take it another way I suppose, Spatial didn't show paths at all
but Browser mode Nautilus did (even before it was changed to the Path
buttons).

> > making a decision on who and what, you're just going to waste your time
> > and go in pointless circles."

And the comments about usability discussions going nowhere are nothing
new...

> He just says that you must specify target audience and then ask questions
> what to change and how.

Taking a step back and evaluating the requirement and the target audience
is always good advice

> Nothing even indirectly implying that we should ditch buttons.

I hope my comment above makes it clearer why I drew the connection but I
see how you might interpret it differently.

> I thought it's rather obvious what is gnome's target audience,

There is a good general idea ...

> direction in which it was going lately points to :
> a) ordinary people with no/poor knowledge of what computer is, but still
> want/have to perform every day tasks on it with as little hassle as possible

> b) corporate/enterprise users (whatever that means)

... but greater clarity would help, especially when it comes to meeting
the different requirements, and stiking the right balance of simplicity
and flexibility.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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