Re: [Usability] A file information preview system in Nautilus

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 4 Jun 2008, at 01:52, Long Gao wrote:

> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=147642 is discussing how  
> to patch nautilus with tooltips. One of the patches provided an  
> experimental image preview, a little like what you mockuped. More  
> tests, suggestions and interests is welcomed.

Personally, I'd really prefer this wasn't done using tooltips.  The  
clue's in the name-- files aren't "tools" :)

One of my concerns is that in the file manager, you have a lot of  
'hotspots' in a comparatively small area, and these tooltips will be  
fairly large to accommodate thumbnails etc.  Thus there's a higher  
risk of accidental activation than on toolbars (e.g. people often  
subsconsciously point at items they're looking at on the screen, even  
though they don't wish to interact), and the consequences are  
greater-- once shown, a significant part of the window is obscured  
until the tooltip disappears again.

Also, once a tooltip appears, moving the pointer to another hotspot  
causes that object's tooltip to appear immediately-- there is no delay  
on subsequent activations.  So the user will have to try and find a  
'dead spot' in amongst all those file icons to make the tooltip  
disappear again. (Or wait for the tooltip to time out and disappear,  
but I'm not sure that GNOME tooltips even do that.)

Also, while tooltips are somewhat accessible via a keyboard shortcut  
that turns 'tooltip mode' on and off, this is a rather different use  
case that wasn't originally envisioned, and might require a rethink of  
tooltip accessibility.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems