Re: [Usability] Out of Disk Space?

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 21 Sep 2007, at 17:36, Alan Horkan wrote:

> There is precedent for doing things this way too, the history in  
> the web
> browser gets deleted automatically after a certain amount of days  
> but it
> seems like deleting large files from the trash after a fixed time  
> period
> might be a familiar concept and I'd hope a relatively simple  
> solution to
> implement.  The trash is at its most useful when it prevents  
> accidentally
> deletion, most useful in the short term so with the a setting to  
> delete
> files over a week old I think it could work well.

Incredibly, I've heard a couple of independent stories recently of  
(admittedly Windows) support people who've had an earful from clients  
for emptying their months-old Trash while performing routine  
maintenance, because they kept 'important' files there.

I suspect the fact that Windows labels it "Recycle Bin" rather than  
the more final-sounding "Trash" may be partly culpable, although it's  
still hard to imagine what's going through the minds of users who  
would keep important stuff there.  Nonetheless, it certainly suggests  
that we shouldn't do any permanent deletion of even really old stuff  
without explicit confirmation.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems