Re: [Usability] New UI for gnome-about-me capplet



On Mon, 1 May 2006, Diego [ISO-8859-1] González wrote:

> Date: Mon, 01 May 2006 00:33:50 +0200
> From: "Diego [ISO-8859-1] González" <diego pemas net>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] New UI for gnome-about-me capplet
>
> On Sun, 2006-04-30 at 23:04 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > (I'm aiming for constructive criticism, sorry if it seems a bit harsh)
> >
> > On Sun, 30 Apr 2006, Diego [ISO-8859-1] Gonzlez wrote:
> >
> > > Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:15:42 +0200
> > > From: "Diego [ISO-8859-1] Gonzlez" <diego pemas net>
> > > To: usability gnome org
> > > Subject: [Usability] New UI for gnome-about-me capplet
> > >
> > > hi
> > >
> > > i'm the maintainer of the gnome-about-me capplet that is in the control
> > > center, i'm thinking about redoing the UI for the new release of gnome.
> >
> > I was looking at Ubunut and I noticed there were seperate items for the
> > Login picture and the About me picture.  If this isn't an Ubuntu only
> > thing have you given any thought to having About Me do both?

> Since the begining of the times gnome-about-me has had the ability to
> set the login picture. So this will not change.

I was going to file a bug against Ubuntu and recommend they
remove this redundancy but it seems they have removed it from Dapper
Drake already.

> > > Clicking on the picture of the first screenshort would show a file
> > > selector in the $prefix/share/pixmap/faces directory.

The only advantage it seems to have is a list of sample images and it
should be possible to preset the folder About me looks for images in and
if they want that they should be able to provide a patch against about me
if they haven't already.

> > > Currently i have thought about something like the screenshot attached.
> >
> > It does look a lot tidier.

And it would fit on smaller screens too which I always appreciate as any
well designed user interface needs to strech for different screen sizes
and font sizes (accessible themes).

> > > Clicking on the change password would bring the dialog shown in the
> > > second screenshot.
> >
> > The dialog seems somewhat verbose.  The two step process of having to
> > authenticate and provide the new passwords seems convoluted.

Perhaps this deserves to be a seperate Control Panel item or would be
better integrated somewhere else?

> Ok, here we run into problems the Linux way to change a password is a
> pain in the ass. In Linux this is usually a two step process and cannot
> be simplified further. Right not there is no authenticate button and the
> authentication is carried impleicitly when leaving the entry, which
> doesn't work in some cases.

Perhaps you could abstract out the process to try and get closer to
the interface you really want without exposing the implementation details
to the user?  (I understand if you would rather work on other things
instead though.)

> Once authenticated the lock icons closes it self (before authentication
> it is open) and the message on the bottom changes to indicate the status
> of both passwords (if they match). Also the "change password" button
> should be disabled if both passwords don't match.

The downside of disabling the button is what Bruce Tognazzi amusingly
describes as "grey doubt".  Users are left wondering why exactly the
button wont work and how to enable it.

Changing the text without using a proper status area or other method to
make it clear the space is variable/subject to change is an accessibility
issue since screen readers cannot know they need to check back and the
text again.

Devil is in the details.

> > > Clicking on the "Address book card" would show a dialog very simmilar to
> > > the current evolution "new contact" dialog.
> >
> > Similar ... can the new contact dialog be hacked out of Evolution and
> > be directly reused by both?
> >
> Well i fear this will take more time than i can devote to it. So your
> now it will have to be copied somewhat.

Sure, I dont want to burden you but if you put these things on a road map
or in the bug tracker you might be able to attract the attention and help
of Project Soyelent or the Evolution developers.  Maybe there is an easier
way to reuse the "New Contact" dialog.


Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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