Re: [Usability] Reasoning behind default panel setup?

[David Tenser <djst mozilla gmail com>]

Thanks to Alan for the introduction, and to Evandro for the history and
background of the default panel layout. I think I'm ready to continue
the discussion (or, rather, actually start it). :)

The reason why I'm posting about all this here is because I was
recommended to do so by gnome-panel developer Vincent Untz. I see three
general problems with the current default panel layout:

1. Icons are very small on a 24px panel.

Many icons, especially application icons, generally look better when
displayed in a larger size. The current layout, using two 24px panels,
makes everything on the panels very small. This also has the drawback of
making icons harder to target.

2. Valuable screen space is wasted.

More specifically, it's the vertical screen space that's wasted.
Widescreen monitors with a resolution of 1280x800 are becoming very
common these days, especially on notebooks (I know this for a fact since
I sell these things on a daily basis). The default panels make
widescreens, a.k.a. "short screens" even shorter, which isn't a good
thing. Loosing some of the screen width wouldn't be as much of a
problem, for example by having one vertcal and one horizontal panel.

3. The separation of the panels makes little sense

At first glance, you could argue that the top panel is for launching
applications and providing system status, and the bottom one is for
managing running applications and windows. After a while you realize
that's not the case. The trash can has little to do with window
management, and the notification area would actually fit better on the
bottom panel than on the top, since it's a group of running
applications. On the other hand, how does one draw the line between a
running application and system status? The trash can could easily be
grouped along with the volume icon, since it's in fact a system status
(it shows whether or not there are files in the trash). It's not at all
straightforward to motivate why some things are at the bottom and other
things at the top.


Alan Horkan and Evandro mentioned Fitt's law as one of the reasons for
using two panels. While I agree that the corners are important to
utilize, Gnome actually only makes use of two of them. The other two are
wasted by the time/date applet and the trash can. Another argument for
using two panels could be that the Mac uses it. However, they get away
with it because they're actually using the top panel for something else:
the application menu. This reduces the amount of wasted screen real
estate of that panel to zero.


My proposal, and the original reason why I created this thread, is to
use one single panel instead of two separate. This panel would be of a
slightly larger size. I would suggest 32px, which I've found is enough
to make the icons easy to recognize (much easier than 24px) and still
16px smaller in height than the current 2*24px panels. The benefits for
this would be:

* Easier to spot, recognize, and click on icons. Also, better looking icons.

* More vertical space available for applications.

* Familiar environment for ex-Windows users (let's not forget them --
there are a lot of them), and even KDE users.

* Less clutter and confusion, by removing some of the default applets.

I should probably not get too detailed on how this panel would be
arranged, because that could potentially just lead to a discussion about
the specifics. However, two things should probably be mentioned:

* It would not include the workspace switcher. While multiple desktops
is a very useful feature, it's not something "normal" users ever use. I
bet this is one of those occasions where someone will ask me for stats
proving my point. I don't have any. :) All I can say is that, of all the
people I've asked about this (plus reading bug reports touching the
subject), none of them actually use virtual desktops. Those who use it
would have no problem adding it to the panel(s). It's all about
achieving a "sane default" here.

* It would not look crowded just because two panels are merged into one.
The date/time applet only displays the time by default now, making the
current top panel even more empty. That and the workspace switcher sums
up to a lot of horizontal pixels saved.


I'd be happy to do a simple mockup of how the proposal would look like
if anyone is interested. Thanks for reading this far and hopefully I
have been clear enough about the suggestions.

Cheers,

David Tenser