Re: [Usability] Tab implementation review

[Steve Fosdick <lists pelvoux nildram co uk>]

On Thu, 2009-02-12 at 12:54 +0000, Allan Day wrote:

> I agree that, in an ideal world, we wouldn't have tabs and we'd just
> have really awesome window management instead. I'd also agree that
> improving window management is important, and I would hope that, in the
> future, window management gets so good that we don't need tabs any more.
> 
> Whether we like it or not though, tabs are going to be around for a
> while, if for no other reason than them being something that users
> expect nowadays.

With respect that seems a bit like saying that all women should wear
blue dresses because the president's wife was seen wearing one.  There
is no doubt that this kind of thinking does go on but it doesn't mean we
have to indulge in it.

If you mean that application designers are going to include tabs anyway
because it is the latest fashion and, if they are so determined, then it
is better that they are done consistently then that is a valid point.  I
would still rather that any policy on tabs was qualified by saying that
the best option would be to avoid them completely.

Why avoid them?  With SDI applications the "icon bar" or "window list"
which displays the documents you have open and also gives the option to
restore/maximise/close serves the same purpose.

If one has so many documents open that a two level hierarchy is required
to manage them then workspaces as the higher level and windows as the
lower level is better than windows as the top level and tabs as the
lower level because with workspaces the user can apportion the documents
to a workspace based on an association between then other than the
application that happens to manage that document.

As an example one could be composing an e-mail while making reference to
a web document and a word processor document.  Each of these three
documents can be located on a workspace together so that the window list
easily switches between them.

In another workspace one could have Internet banking from his bank open
alongside an financial management application.

By comparison it would not be useful to put the Internet banking and the
other web document being referred to while writing the e-mail together
in tabs as they have no connection to each other at all.

Apart from not helping, if a particular application insists that all its
documents appear in tabs inside a single window it actively prevents
organising documents into tasks rather than applications.

Perhaps the effort should instead by invested in the window list.  Maybe
the tablets that appear there should have a close button like tabs often
do.  Perhaps an application that has windows open on another workspace
should ask you if you want to close those other windows is you choose
"File/Exit" (if that exists).

Regards,
Steve.