Re: 2.4 Module List and Rationale (aka GEP10 and 11)

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 11:18:18PM -0600, Jacob Perkins wrote: 
> Even if Seahorse ends up being rejected (I'm hopeful but realistic), I'd
> really like comments and ideas for Gnome integration.

Leaving the whole interesting part of your mail for someone else to
answer ;-), here is how I'd improve the feature: the Seahorse web page
says it is a "PGP/GPG Key Manager" and certainly it looks like that
from the screenshots.  It assumes I understand GPG already and have
read the whole manual on it.

My personal dream crypto feature would start from user scenarios or
user tasks, and have UI that makes it *likely* that users will use
crypto correctly and often, instead of one that makes it possible for
them to use crypto. I always find GPG hard to understand, and I know I
probably end up making mistakes that result in insecurity. Plus it's
too inconvenient to use regularly.

A more task-based approach - "let me create an encrypted text file for
my friend John's eyes only" - might lead the UI in different
directions, moving GPG to more of an implementation detail role.

I can imagine features built-in to applications such as gedit or
gnumeric ("save for John only"), and of course file manager features
such as "encrypt this file for John" or "decrypt this file." There
might also be some wizards ("assistants") to do things like create
your own private key, and the wizard would appear when the code
determines you need to do that task. Or perhaps the right UI involves
making the user's key really visible, so they drag things to and from
their key or keyring. No idea really. ;-)

I seem to remember reading some stuff on the web about research into
good UIs for crypto, but I don't remember any more details than that.
In any case, starting from a list of user tasks in plain user language
might clarify a lot right away.

.02 anyhow

Havoc