Re: [Usability] Can't Handle it anymore! (Consistent toolbars?)

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005, Matthew Thomas wrote:

>  > I'm not against the idea of turning this Customisability off by
>  > defualt (a small discovery penalty I think is worth paying).

[1]

>  > > A better solution would be to get rid of the handles, and make the
>  > > entire toolbar draggable when the Alt key was held down.
>  > >
>  > > That would make rearrangement similarly difficult to do
>  > > accidentally, but would also make it easier to do when you really
>  > > did want to do it, because the target area would be the entire
>  > > toolbar instead of a tiny handle.
>  >...
>  > I expect this suggestion could be incorporated into any larger plan
>  > but I had exactly the same concerns about discoverability as David
>  > Christian Berg
>  >...
>
> Regardless of whether rearrangable toolbars are worthwhile at all, I
> think it's odd to be concerned about the discoverability of Alt+drag,

keybindings like that force users to read through masses of documentation.

I wasn't saying not to have it all but rather as part of a greater
solution but the way you proposed it sounded like you intended it as a
solution all on its own.

> but to be okay with the discoverability of the feature being completely
> "off by default".

You missed (and chopped out [1] where I suggests a single menu item
labelled "Customise" somewhere under View, possibly in a Toolbars submenu,
which I think is sufficiently discoverable.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/