Re: Suggestions from a User

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Hi Danni

On Jun 20, 2006, at 12:57 PM, d2004 cosmopod com wrote:
> ...
> 3.  I believe it has been discussed before but it would be more 
> logical for deleted emails to be treated as higher level objects and 
> go to system trash rather than a deleted mail folder.  This would make 
> system trash a universal repository for deleted data.

That would be nifty, but the mail-specific Trash would still be useful 
as a way of viewing only the deleted items that were e-mail messages.

> ...
> 6.  A spell checker would be much appreciated in Epiphany for when the 
> user is entering data into online forms.  Konqueror is the only 
> browser I know of with this functionality (not sure if Safari also has 
> it.)

<http://live.gnome.org/Epiphany/FeatureDesign/Spellchecking>

> 7.  One problem with all browsers, is that, to save individual images, 
> the user must right-click on them and save. This is tiresome if a user 
> wants to download multiple images from a page, without saving the 
> whole thing.  IT also seems, from the usability studies I have read 
> online that new and inexperienced users have a reticence towards 
> right-clicking.  The various usability studies I have read by Sun and 
> Novell seem to indicate that people often do not think to right-click 
> to configure the clock or activate applets. Therefore, functions that 
> are present in right-click menus only, such as that to save images in 
> the browser, may not be such a good idea.  Perhaps an entry to "Save 
> All Images On Page" under the file menu, would be appropriate.

Or you could drag the image from the Web page onto your desktop or into 
a folder, which works right now. (Granted, it doesn't work for images 
that are inside links. But there are less obtrusive ways saving could 
be provided for those too -- for example, the "Save As…" button in the 
Media tab of Firefox's Page Info window.)

> 8.  My biggest grief with GNOME relates to my dial-up USB modem.  I 
> know that it is supported under my current system (Fedora Core 5)  
> because I can run it successfully under kppp.  However, attempting to 
> configure it under GNOME results in failure as it cannot be detected.  
> This is annoying as, for one reason, it limits me from using a 
> GNOME-only distribution such as Ubuntu.  kppp is a more than adequate 
> workaround but it would be great for GNOME to also support these.  I 
> realise that dial-up is slowing giving way to broadband but in my 
> (first-world) country there are still many home users with dial-up 
> only.  We are also cutting ourselves off from the third world.

Agreed -- the lack of easy-to-use dialup configuration makes Gnome much 
less interesting for 22% of people online in the USA, 46% in China, 69% 
in Australia, 70% in New Zealand, about 70% in India, and so on.

> ...
> 12.  Whilst Nautilus is a fine file BROWSER(and I greatly like the 
> spatial mode)  I tend to agree with a few people who have cited the 
> need for a file MANIPULATION TOOL as well, for such tasks as renaming, 
> printing lists of directory structures and so on.
> ...

I can't think of any reason for these features not to be in Nautilus. 
(You can already rename single items, just not in the way Windows and 
Mac OS let you do it.)

> ...
> 14.  Without any empirical evidence of improved usability, I do like 
> the concept of circular menus mentioned here:
>
> http://www.daimi.au.dk/~kamstrup/articles/G3-ideas.html
> ...

From what I've seen, circular menus don't scale to more than about 12 
items, especially if they contain text.

Cheers
--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/