Re: [Usability] Control Center Appearance Capplet

[Jacob Beauregard <jake13jake comcast net>]

Thank you for approaching a problem that I've had with GNOME. I think Benson 
makes some good points. Making sure the mental models that a user will create 
as a result of modifying appearance will be clear rather than overlapping is 
very important. This is actually one problem that I've seen using KDE in a 
number of areas. A user is better off if there's a clear foundation of 
functionality.

On Monday 16 April 2007 09:57:31 am Thomas Wood wrote:
> I'm currently looking at integrating the various appearance settings
> throughout GNOME into a single "Appearance Settings" application for the
> control center.
>
> I have made some mockups, which can be seen here:
> http://live.gnome.org/ControlCenter/AppearanceSettings
>
> We've discussed these on the control center mailing list[1] and I would
> like to discuss some of the issues raised here as well.
>
>
> Themes Tab
>
> The themes tab provides a way of saving and apply a particular group of
> appearance settings. This means it will change the settings on other
> tabs, and this is contrary to advice in the HIG. However, I am not sure
> if the advice in the HIG applies to this, as it is (or should be) fairly
> obvious that changing to a different theme will affect options not shown
> on the current tab.
>
>
> Close Button
>
> As you can see, there is no separate close button on this window other
> than in the title bar. I know this has been discussed before, but would
> it be impossible to require "GNOME Compliant" window managers to include
>   a close button. My main reason for removing it is because of the Novel
> usability studies that showed[2] several people did not understand that
> the window was instant apply. I think the presence of a dialog-style
> button bar suggests that the window is asking the user for some action,
> when in fact this is not the case.
>
>
> Dialog Window
>
> Related to the above, I have also not set this window to be a dialog
> window. The window is not asking for any confirmation or action from the
> user, so I think it ought to be a "normal" window. We also had several
> bug reports[3] requesting that the previous theme capplet have maximise
> buttons because in contained a scrollable window. Metacity (quite
> reasonably) does not allow maximise buttons on dialogs, so it had to be
> changed to a normal window.
>
>
> Undo and Redo
>
> There has been some suggestion on the control center list that we might
> like to include Undo/Redo or Revert buttons in the capplets[4], It would
> be useful to get some input into the usability/accessibility
> implications of such a feature.
>
>
> Preference Windows
>
> It would be useful to clarify the above points with regards to
> "Preference Windows" in the HIG. The HIG specifies that preference
> windows should be instant apply, but does not specify a particular
> layout to deal with this idiom. Looking at any other operating systems
> where instant apply is often used (primarily Mac OS X), it seems that
> most preference windows do not have any Close button other than that
> provided by the title bar.
>
>
> Of course, any other comments and suggestions are welcome as well.
>
> Regards,
>
> Thomas
>
>
> [1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnomecc-list/2007-April/msg00000.html
> [2] http://www.betterdesktop.org/wiki/index.php?title=Data
> [3] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=331835
> [4] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnomecc-list/2007-April/msg00011.html
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