Re: [Usability] Gome is Too BIG..

["Piotr Zaryk" <oponek gmail com>]

Look at KDE - looks great even in 800x600. There should be an option to make gnome items smaller (simple comparison - gajim and psi from kde). Gnome should be more elastic - able to fit 800x600 and higher resolution screens.

2008/3/12, Kalle Vahlman <kalle vahlman gmail com>:

2008/3/12, Luca Cappelletti <luca cappelletti gmail com>:

> Hello Dario,
>
> On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Dokuro <dario soto gmail com> wrote:
> > hello everyone,
> > it has been a while now and it seems that Gnome has everything over
> > sized buttons, spaces, fonts, i can't put mi finger on it but on a
> > 800x600 screen everything is always so big... i reduced the font size
> > from 10 to 8, it fixed things a little but almost all programs occupy
> >


This is a recurring issue, see for example

  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2004-May/msg00044.html

"no sense deliberately excluding people who are still using 800x600 or
even 640x480 without a very good reason)."

and

  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2005-December/msg00010.html

Sometimes developers just forget that people *are* still using small
screens, and even more so with the (screen-wise) low end mobile
devices starting the resolution cycle from bottom up again. I have on
many occasions wanted to set my screen to 800x600 and file bugs agains
every screen that I find unusable with that resolution. Alas, other
things keeping me busy have prevented that from happening.

My simple advice to solve the problem in development phase would be to
never design a screen that is *forced* to exceed 400 pixels in height.
That should leave some space for possible panels and window
decorations. Additional available space should naturally be
efficiently used when possible, but the application should not depend
on it. Usually you'll end up with better UI anyway if you keep it
simple, so the guideline is actually a double win ;)

I didn't find a mention of window sizing in the HIG (apart a mention
of the golden ratio), but I remember this been discussed earlier and
recently (due to the GNOME Mobile efforts and the mobile "uprising" in
general). I hope the HIG will soonish be refreshed in that regard to
include experiences from devices like the eeePC and Nokia's tablets.


> have you ever tried before to use or customize a gnome theme for your needs?
> With a specialized gtk, icons and metacity theme you can reduce the window
> and it's content to the max.
>  Developing for UMPC require knowledge over what a HIG should offer and
> everything will be handled from the developer.
> 800x600 smells like eeePC so,


Actually eeePC:s and other similar devices are generally 800x480 (and
the bigger screen versions 1024x600).

[snip large signature]

Wow, I bet that didn't fit in 800x600 ;)


--
Kalle Vahlman, zuh iki fi
Powered by http://movial.fi
Interesting stuff at http://syslog.movial.fi

_______________________________________________
Usability mailing list
Usability gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability

-- 
Regards,
Zaryk