Re: [Usability] Save Icon

[Evandro Fernandes Giovanini <efgiovanini gmail com>]

Em Seg, 2006-01-30 às 11:32 -0500, Owen Williams escreveu:
> On Sun, 2006-01-29 at 04:49 -0200, Evandro Fernandes Giovanini wrote:
> > 2) toolbars shouldn't have Open, Save, Cut/Copy/Paste, Undo/Redo and
> > Print buttons.
> 
> Microsoft research discovered that "Paste" is the number one most-used
> command, and the "Paste" toolbar button is the most-used button in the
> whole program:
> 
> (http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/11/07/489864.aspx)
> 
> "Paste itself accounts for more than 11% of all commands used, and has
> more than twice as much usage as the #2 entry on the list, Save.
> 
> Paste is also far-and-away the number one command in Excel and
> PowerPoint, accounting for 15% and 12% of total command use,
> respectively.
> 
> ...
> 
> the toolbar button for Paste still gets clicked more than any other
> button. "
> 
> owen
> 
> 

The article you linked mentions one of the reasons I think these buttons
should not be on the toolbar:

"...the toolbar button for Paste still gets clicked more than any other
button.  The command is so incredibly popular that <i>even though there
are more efficient ways of using it</i>, many people do prefer to click
the toolbar button." (highlight from me)

What they're saying is that they're supporting the more inefficiant way
of doing an action because it's "popular". As a result most new users
will not even learn the more efficiant ways and they'll be less
productive using the software. 

Also, Cut/Copy/Paste are often used between different applications.
People may want to copy something from a text document to a form in a
website (or the other way around, from the web to a document). The
problem is that the web browser doesn't have a copy or a paste toolbar
button. So the user who learned the toolbar buttons in the text
processor might think it's not possible to copy/paste from or to a web
browser. (in my opinion Microsoft is particularly good at designing
applications that completely ignore the rest of the applications and the
operating system itself. GNOME is *a lot* better here, and most hackers
will gladly follow the set of guidelines agreed on by the usability
team, specially if you send patches :).

The same applies to the other buttons I mentioned earlier (Open, Save,
Undo, Redo, Print). If you place them in toolbars of only some
applications people will be less likely to use them in other
applications where they're available only from the menu (or they'll be
slower when doing so). 

As Open, Save, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo and Print are common actions
in many different applications they should be available in the same way
in all of them. This makes using and learning different applications a
lot easier. For what it's worth, I don't think Apple ever uses these
buttons in toolbars, and I think maybe the HIG should recommend this by
default. Calum's people, what do you think? :)  

(maybe for GNOME 2.16 there will be a toolbar editor interface in GTK+
so these buttons can still be added even if they're not there by
default).

Cheers,
Evandro