Re: [Usability] Can the GNOME desktop survive an encounter with my parents?

[Jason Hoover <jasonhoover verizon net>]

> Like I said, these notes come much from observing how they used GNOME.
> I think my father was looking for a way to view a slideshow of the
> folder. He was in /home/dadsname/Images/<some folder>, right-clicked
> on <some folder> and probably expected a "Show a slideshow of this
> folder" or something equivalent. Frankly, I have no idea.

Oh, this is still in the image viewer. I thought you meant the ones in
nautilus (little button at the bottom left of windows). Maybe he was
just checking to see if there were any options hidden under there. I do
that sometimes too, and am surprised to find some irritatingly obscure
but useful function.

> > There's actually a massive delay when the panel is moved to re-locate
> > and re-size all of the icons.
> 
> Yes, the problem is that he gets no "outline" as he drags it, like you
> get on windows if you drag the bottom "panel" there (what is it called
> on Windows again?). Try clicking on the middle of the top panel and
> drag the mouse down to the bottom of the screen. You get no visual
> indication that you're dragging anything before the panel suddenly
> snaps from top to bottom.

I meant that the delay is caused by the icons re-sizing. Moving panels
also has a much higher threshold. I think you have to be (I'm guessing)
PanelWidth*2 close to the edge you want it to move to. 

There might be a good reason to make this more windows-like, have it be
ScreenWidth/2|3 close to the edge and have an outline. Possibly even a
little faster. I imagine fixed-width/height panel applets are getting in
the way for now, though.

> The definition of "panel" is not the problem here. The fact that he
> thinks each desktop within the switcher is a seperate entity on the
> panel (and thus he should be able to remove only one of them by using
> "Remove from panel") is the problem.

Oh I see now. In other words, it should be clearer that it's in fact,
one solid object instead of four similar looking ones. Hmm, maybe using
a darker shade of grey between the panels would fix this? Is there a
relevant bug, or would one be unwarranted?

> Thanks for taking the time to comment on my random scrabble. It seems
> to me you mistunderstood alot of my notes, but that most surely is a
> result of them being notes and not something I reviewed with care
> before sending to the list.

Nah, your notes are fine, I probably mis-read a few of them because I
had such a long day. They're still very interesting points.

-Jason