Re: [Usability] Suggestion for the actual UI of GTK+'s NewFileSelector

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 15:39, Eugenia Loli-Queru wrote:
> > If I am in a very deep tree, say, 64 levels deep, and the PathView has
> > the last few folders in view, how do I scroll immediately to the first,
> > or thirty-second, or some other random position, in the "list" of
> > folders?
> 
> You could as easily place some down-looking arrows like on web browsers to
> expand to a combo box. Path Navigator is the best solution for "normal"
> situations and its advantages exceed those of the plain combo box  IMHO.
> Point is though, that we are looking at the wrong problem in which there is
> no solution today: hierarchical fses. Until these are changed, neither the
> Path Navigator or the combo box will be good enough for all cases.

You aren't ever getting rid of hierarchy, as I've discussed previously. 
If not in the FS, it'll be part of the user model, simply because that's
how we think and organize information.  You can't present tons of
information without organization, and organization is hierarchial by
nature.  Of course, we will hopefully have better hierarchies than just
names of folders.  That'll just complicate how to present the hierarchy
to users, tho, not make it magically go away and turn into a simple
button or something...

If you don't believe me, go ahead and try to show us a mockup of how
you'd navigate a group of 100,000 using metadata filters/selections
without relying heavily on hierarchial presentation.

You can't wave your hand at the hierarchy problem and assume it'll just
go away soon, because it won't.  We need *the* best methods for
navigating hierarchy, which then will spill over to when we stop
selecting folders and are selecting metadata tags instead.

> 
> >Even testing with low-fidelity mock-ups, such as paper
> >prototypes or proposed screen shots, produces valid results.
> 
> Sure, but if they have never used nothing similar to any OS some people
> might be buffled and not understand what it does. Path Navigator is not my

Wait, haven't you been arguing that it's all intuitive and superior?  It
can't be both baffling and intuitive... ;-)

-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.