Re: [Usability] Deja Dup UI Review

[Jan-Christoph Borchardt <jan inquata com>]

On 21 April 2010 10:09, Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de> wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-04-20 at 20:13 -0400, Michael Terry wrote:
>
>> http://live.gnome.org/DejaDup/Mission
>
>> http://live.gnome.org/DejaDup/Screenshots
>
>> Above and beyond a review of how the current UI could be
>> improved/redesigned, I'd like thoughts on a feature request I keep
>> getting.  Basically, people want backup profiles (being able to backup
>> potentially different data to different locations on different
>> schedules).  I've been struggling with how to offer such functionality
>> without making the UI much busier/complicated and would love
>> suggestions.
>
> This is bound to be in conflict with "Even the smallest barrier can be
> too much for a casual user.".
>
> If it was a simple back-up-now without scheduling, profiles could be
> created implicitly. But with scheduling, creating profiles must be
> explicit. There has to be Delete and there should likely be Disable.
>
> If I had several backup profiles scheduled, I would want to have an
> overview of their scheduling rules and when they will run next. I think
> this calls for a table with columns for at least Schedule and Profile
> Name. Other column candidates would be []Enable, Configure and Delete.
> Theoretically, you could put all the stuff directly into the table. Of
> course you could use a detail pane, but then you need item selection.
> How very far from just 2 buttons.

This would have to be concealed as something like »Advanced Options«
then. Something you have to enable to get extra functionality, only if
needed.

If »it is not designed for system administrators, but rather the less
technically savvy«, I wonder who is asking for these features in the
first place. I guess that most »casual GNOME desktop users« have one
external hard drive they backup to, or one backup target in general.

Would be interesting to have a questionnaire for existing users to
define a scope for further development. For a start, you could ask the
people who have been asking for the feature to explain in detail what
they wanted, so you can distinguish.

Maybe there already is a tool for the functionality they want. For the
others, Déjà Dup is just fine.