Re: [Usability] Panel applet interface

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Joachim Noreiko wrote:

> Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:20:16 +0100 (BST)
> From: Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>
> To: Gnome usability <usability gnome org>
> Subject: [Usability] Panel applet interface
>
> While we're on the subject of the panel and its
> applets, I've noticed some discrepancies in their
> interface.
>
> For most things I've tried adding to the panel, a
> click on the icon produces some sort of action: a
> window is opened, or something pops down from the
> panel, eg volume slider or calendar
> A right-click produces a menu that has options
> specific to the applet followed by some standard
> commands relating to managing the applet's place on
> the panel.
>
> I've found two so far that don't do anything when
> clicked:
> Sticky Notes needs a double-click to create a new
> note.

I agree it should do something but the first click might actually already
be doing something like making sure sticky notes are not hidden but it
might not be clear (sorry cannot check it myself right now).

> Modem Monitor appears to do nothing at all when
> clicked.
>
> Another point is the Tomboy applet. (I think this is
> fantastic, by the way :)

I'm conflicted by Tomboy.  For me it falls halfway between Gedit and
Sticky Notes and I'd prefer to see existing applications improved but
Tomboy is impressive none-the-less.

> This has one menu for a click, and another for
> right-click.
> I'm not sure that a single object producing two menus
> according to how it's clicked is good usability. What
> do you all think?

Sounds good.  If you follow up on this I expect developers could be
convinced to standardise things a little more.

I've noticed the drive mount applet in Ubuntu also has two menus both a
right click and single click.  (I'd rather not have to mount the drive
manually at all but) the icons for each drive are extremely simlar and the
inability to quickly distinguish makes the applet horribly slow to use.

> PS. My emails to various gnome lists go straight to my
> junk folder when I receive a copy back. Is this a
> problem with what I'm sending?

I doubt it, you dont seem to be using HTML email.  Chances are your
anti-spam software sees the list mail is marked with the Bulk precendence
and combined with the standard junk which gets appended to most emails you
are getting a false positive.  Training your system with ham/spam might
help or whitelisting certain addresses.  In fact the most likely answer is
your system might not be expecting you to be sending email to yourself and
counting the copies as spam.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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