[Usability] Tab Implementation Review: Update

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Hi all,

Bit of discussion about tabs on this list. :)

My review of tab implementations in GNOME [1] is pretty much finished.
There's a list of relevant bugs and mailing list threads, a summary of
the usability issues as they exist now, and a review of existing
implementations (across different applications and so on).

My current focus is on identifying inconsistencies in GNOME
applications' tab implementations and ensuring that bugs are filed
against them [2]. Feel free to comment on my findings. Is there anything
on that page that should be a bug but hasn't been reported?

One area where there is virtually no common pattern is in what entries
are contained within tab context menus [3]. Does anyone have an opinion
on which entries should be there by default?

I was at GUADEC this year and had the opportunity to talk to some folks
who are involved in GNOME Shell. The view that I got was that it is
hoped that, with the shell, tabs won't be needed as much as they are
now. Better window management should be able to replace most of the
things that tabs are used for, with the major exception being
web-browsing. It's a view I'm in favour of and which seems realisable.
As a result, I'm looking at developing a set of design goals (and
potential solutions) for tabs in the web-browser. I've got some ideas
there which I'll post to the wiki once they're ready. Some interesting
ideas have also come out of the Mozilla summer design challenge [4],
which I'm looking at.

Best,

Allan

[1] http://bit.ly/3D20jF
[2] http://bit.ly/4snJ7Q
[3] http://bit.ly/qdGke
[4] http://bit.ly/16r4Oi

--
aday on irc.gnome.org