Re: [Usability] Can the GNOME desktop survive an encounter with my parents?

[Vidar Braut Haarr <vhaarr+usability gmail com>]

On 8/27/05, Jason Hoover <jasonhoover verizon net> wrote:

> Like I said, these notes come much from observing how they used GNOME.
> I think my father was looking for a way to view a slideshow of the
> folder. He was in /home/dadsname/Images/<some folder>, right-clicked
> on <some folder> and probably expected a "Show a slideshow of this
> folder" or something equivalent. Frankly, I have no idea.

Oh, this is still in the image viewer. I thought you meant the ones in
nautilus (little button at the bottom left of windows). Maybe he was
just checking to see if there were any options hidden under there. I do
that sometimes too, and am surprised to find some irritatingly obscure
but useful function.

No, we're in Nautilus. It is apparent to me now that you use Nautilus in spatial mode. Ubuntu now defaults to the old/new Browser mode with the Pathbar widget. Turn it on and re-read my initial note.
 

> > There's actually a massive delay when the panel is moved to re-locate
> > and re-size all of the icons.
>
> Yes, the problem is that he gets no "outline" as he drags it, like you
> get on windows if you drag the bottom "panel" there (what is it called
> on Windows again?). Try clicking on the middle of the top panel and
> drag the mouse down to the bottom of the screen. You get no visual
> indication that you're dragging anything before the panel suddenly
> snaps from top to bottom.

I meant that the delay is caused by the icons re-sizing. Moving panels
also has a much higher threshold. I think you have to be (I'm guessing)
PanelWidth*2 close to the edge you want it to move to.

There might be a good reason to make this more windows-like, have it be
ScreenWidth/2|3 close to the edge and have an outline. Possibly even a
little faster. I imagine fixed-width/height panel applets are getting in
the way for now, though.

The delay or threshold was never the issue here. The issue is simply "You do not get instant feedback, like you do when dragging icons or windows." Maybe I should've just said that in the initial e-mail :-)
 

> The definition of "panel" is not the problem here. The fact that he
> thinks each desktop within the switcher is a seperate entity on the
> panel (and thus he should be able to remove only one of them by using
> "Remove from panel") is the problem.

Oh I see now. In other words, it should be clearer that it's in fact,
one solid object instead of four similar looking ones. Hmm, maybe using
a darker shade of grey between the panels would fix this? Is there a
relevant bug, or would one be unwarranted.

A darker shade of grey would make it even harder to tell the desktops apart from eachother than it is now - and it's not easy now, with that 1px wide separator.
 

> Thanks for taking the time to comment on my random scrabble. It seems
> to me you mistunderstood alot of my notes, but that most surely is a
> result of them being notes and not something I reviewed with care
> before sending to the list.

Nah, your notes are fine, I probably mis-read a few of them because I
had such a long day. They're still very interesting points.

Don't thank me, thank my parents :-D

-- 
Vidar Braut Haarr
"Programmers don't die, they
just GOSUB without RETURN."