Re: [Usability] [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: Zoom Controls]]

[Florian Ludwig <dino phidev org>]

Hi everybody,

On Wed, 2010-04-21 at 11:44 +0100, Allan Day wrote:
> I'm sure I'm quite wrong about a lot of this and look forward to
> being corrected by those who know better. ;) In the mean time, I have
> a few suggestions based on my most likely flawed analysis: 

I don't think I know better, so I can do no corrections but still like
to comment :)


On Wed, 2010-04-21 at 22:01 +0100, Allan Day wrote:
> > > * To me, the feedback provided by sliders or percentage indicators
> > > (like those shown in Nautilus and EoG's statusbar) doesn't seem 
> > > particularly useful. Generally, a user doesn't need to know if 
> > > they are zoomed at 150% or if they have zoomed through half of 
> > > the magnification range.
> > I agree about the relative to the zoom end part, but the 
> > % indication
> > is very useful to me as an icon designer.
> > I think there are also a lot of use cases where they can be handy to
> > people taking pictures.
> > Removing it probably won't affect a huge group, but leaving it in
> > doesn't either.
> 
> Sure, a percentage indicator is useful in some technical ways. It's
> entirely appropriate to have something like that in the GIMP or
> Inkscape or even F-Spot. It doesn't seem helpful to have it in
> Nautilus, though.
> I'm unsure about the case of EoG... 

In nautilus: the percentage references to the size of the thumbnail [0],
so I can't see it useful and removing it might improve usability as the
percentage might be misleading here.

In editing software like Inkscape or GIMP, its out of question that it
is useful, I guess. But also I like to argue that its useful in EoG as
well. It is useful if you look at photos or if you're doing any kind of
design. As it doesn't clutter the interface that much I belief you hurt
some people by removing it but help little to the rest.


[0] Does it actually reference to the size of the thumbnail?
    Its a guess, "even" me confuses it - 50% of what?

-- 
Florian Ludwig <dino phidev org>