Re: [Usability] A file information preview system in Nautilus

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 5 Jun 2008, at 01:36, Long Gao wrote:

> Except all the points against tooltips, there are value of tooltips,  
> isn't it? Or there won't be a bug report requesting it from four  
> years ago, will it?
I've no doubt that some users would find tooltips useful some of the  
time, and there are probably even more users who think they would.

However, most UI designers also know from experience that what users  
think they want, and what they actually need, aren't always the same  
thing :) [1]

So as always, it's important to enumerate the tasks, their frequency,  
the context in which they will be performed and by whom, before  
deciding what the best solution might be.

Cheeri,
Calum.

[1] Similarly, what users say they do with your application, and what  
they actually do, aren't always the same thing-- so the only reliable  
way to find out is to observe them (whilst trying to minimise observer  
effects, like the Hawthorne Effect...)

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

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems