Re: [Usability] Save As mockup (Was RFP: File chooser user interface)

[Dave Malcolm <david davemalcolm demon co uk>]

On Fri, 2003-09-12 at 18:27, Alan Horkan wrote:
> On 12 Sep 2003, Dave Malcolm wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2003-09-08 at 14:27, Owen Taylor wrote:
> > > GtkFileChooser is the next generation file selection widget for GTK+
> > > that will appear in GTK+-2.4. Quite a bit of work has been done on the
> > > application programming interfaces and on the internal implementation,
> > > but there is, as yet, no firm design for how the file selector should
> > > look and work.
> > >
> > > This is a request for proposals for how the file selection user
> > > interface; what we are hoping to do is to get a number of user
> > > interface proposals, pick one or combine elements from multiple
> > > proposals, implement a first draft, and then refine from there.
> > >
> >
> > I've created some mockups of a "Save As..." dialog.
> >
> > Users of Mac OS X (and, potentially, lawyers at Apple) may notice a
> > strong similarity between the proposal and the standard Aqua dialog.
> 
> Links to screenshots of the Mac OS X dialogs
> (if someone has better screenshots from previous discussions please post
> them)
> 
> http://infotech.cas.msu.edu/osxinlabs/media/savedialogstandard.gif
> http://infotech.cas.msu.edu/osxinlabs/media/savedialogextended.gif

Aha - those seem to be of either 10.2 or 10.3; I'm now thinking about
changing my proposal to be these screenshots!

> 
> One of the flaws that people have metioned in particular about the Mac OS
> X file dialog is that the list columns are quite narrow and forces you to
> scroll sideways which is fairly unpleasant.

If this is thought to be a major problem, the list columns could be
replaced by a more conventional split of a tree pane and a list pane.

However, in my experience, I _rarely_ find myself browsing the hierarchy
directly: the Standard, Favourites and Recent entries in the option
button menu are almost always adequate.  This is a "most users,
infrequently" option (which is why it's hidden by default)

> 
> > You can see the basic form of my "Save As..." dialog proposal here:
> > http://www.davemalcolm.demon.co.uk/mockups/screenshot-save-as-basic.png
> 
> The sheer simplicity of it is admirable particularly if the program has
> put you in the place where you want to be and suggested a good filename,
> but I think balancing it with the users who will want a far more
> complicated is difficult.
> 

Hence the disclosure area for the power-users features.  I suppose this
could be opened by default using a configuration key, though I don't
think that's necessary.

> It is definately an interesting approach, especially considering the wide
> range of platforms and hardware that GTK runs on (think GPE) and that
> developers will inevitably want to make changes and extensions a
> really simple default is probably a good place to start from.

Thanks for the feedback!

> 
> Sincerely
> 
> Alan Horkan
> http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
> 
> [GPE  http://gpe.handhelds.org/ ]