Re: [Usability] Gnome Wallpaper Properties

[Bryan W Clark <clarkbw clarkson edu>]

Hey dobey ~

On Thu, 2003-12-11 at 12:29, Rodney Dawes wrote:
> On Mar , 2003-12-09 at 11:53, Calum Benson wrote:
> > On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 18:17, Rodney Dawes wrote:
> > 
> Suggestions for improvement are welcome. I am going to be patching the
> gnome-thumbnail code and such so that the displayed meta-data can be
> greatly improved. 

Just a quick suggestion, if you're going to display the file type (PNG
Image, JPEG Image) then do we need to see the file extension?  Just a
thought to saving a little horiz. space.

> > - The GDSG defines the term for what we're changing here: "Desktop
> > Background".  We shouldn't call it 'wallpaper', IMHO.
> 
> I don't have time to write a big long explanation of why I am using
> "wallpaper" and intend to press the issue right now, but I will send
> another reply with all the appropriate bits.

I await with baited anticipation :)

> > - "No Wallpaper" should perhaps be "No Image"... as far as I'm concerned
> > I do still have 'wallpaper' when this option is selected, it just
> > happens to be a solid colour rather than a picture :)
> 
> This goes along with the Wallpaper vs. Desktop Background argument. I'll
> explain more in another reply when I have time to pull all of the
> discussions, and rationalizations into a more singular e-mail form.

Yes, but I'll throw in my suggestion of using the "No Picture" as in the
older capplet.  I think "No Picture" has described the absence of a
background image / wallpaper very well.  But I suppose this has to wait
until the Background vs. Wallpaper argument.

> > - When I run it, the only option I have is "No Wallpaper", which seems
> > slightly odd default behaviour.  Where is it looking for images, or do I
> > really have to add some myself?

Just a quick thought to this as I'm guessing most people keep their
pictures in a similar directory space; obviously there can be lots of
exceptions to this, however you might be able to get a bunch of images
for people to start with.  On first run you could try grabbing any
images from the directory of the current background.  For users with a
simple, flat directory structure to their backgrounds image location you
might load up all of their images and then they won't have to play with
adding all of the images themselves. 

If the current background is from a shipped directory, then the person
will get all those images loaded for them.  Likewise someone who is
upgrading and pulling backgrounds from a directory off their home will
have their pictures loaded.  (I'd watch out for too many images in the
directory of course, so that people don't have to wait long, perhaps on
the wrong directory to load from)

> The icons are planned and there is code to support it. I just don't have
> the icons to put there, and I am not an artist. I just mailed a request
> for the icons, and once I get those, I will add them in and update the
> strings.

I'm working on some other stuff so I didn't have time to spruce this up
any. However, I did cookup a quick mockup[1] of this capplet with the
old Picture options as I still prefer the Picture options as was done
before.  I wonder how the icons will do the style preview justice since
I can never figure out which one is which until I see the effect that is
done to the image.  I understand that this is an instant apply setting
of course, however I don't think people want to have to try out the
different styles to find the right now, rather just have the different
choices presented at the same time. 

On a side note to this, can you save (or are you already saving?) the
style option to your meta file?  So if I set one picture as a certain
style this dialog remembers that I like this picture in that style.

> > - I'd maybe be more inclined to put the "Add" and "Remove" buttons down
> > the right-hand side of the list, to separate them from the "Style"
> > controls and for consistency with the Theme Preferences dialog.
> 
> I'll do that and see what it looks like. I believe that we originally
> avoided this in the design because it creates a bunch of extra dead
> space in the dialog.

I tried this and couldn't figure a good way to do it, so I hope you got
something nice done.  The Add/Remove buttons do need to be beside the
list in order to relay the idea of list management to their
functionality.

[1]
http://clarkson.edu/~clarkbw/screenies/Screenshot-Gnome-wallpaper-properties.png

~ Bryan