Re: [Usability] Gome is Too BIG..

[Jelle de Jong <jelledejong powercraft nl>]

Calum Benson wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-03-13 at 09:17 +0000, Dokuro wrote:
> > hello everyone,
> > it has been a while now and it seems that Gnome has everything over
> > sized buttons, spaces, fonts, i can't put mi finger on it but on a
> > 800x600 screen everything is always so big... i reduced the font size
> > from 10 to 8, it fixed things a little but almost all programs occupy
> > the hole screen without being maxed, seems to be a regular problem in
> > gnome applications where the windows can't be too small, could this be
> > part of the HIG specifications or some ppl making bad interfaces...(i
> > would not know since i have not read it...)
>
> This has come up quite a lot recently.  Two of the problems are:
>
> - AFAIK, the gtk toolkit requires developers to specify most things in
> pixel sizes, rather than in some resolution-independent unit.  This
> results in interfaces that don't scale too well.
>
> - Because of this, the HIG pretty much had to be written from the point
> of view of designing for user who were running with average sized fonts
> on an average sized screen.  This results in interfaces that don't scale
> too well.
>
> When we get around to writing the all-new HIG, we definitely need to be
> more mindful of smaller screens and mobile devices.  How much of that
> can be done in the HIG itself, and how much in a 'HIG for Mobile
> Devices', remains to be seen.
>
> Cheeri,
> Calum.

I am still hoping to get a development strategy that makes the same 
application/sourcecode usable on both mobile devices, umpc'sm, and full 
blow desktop systems. I am trying to get the the problems and solution 
of this at different angles, (packages, distribution, repository 
systems, ui guidelines, etcetera)

With some clever GUI design and user specific GUI options, I believe 
this is all possible. But we must create guideline's and interface 
examples for developers to get them support the idea's and help them in 
implementing the smart GUI designs.

I hate to see applications fork because of GUI inflictions on different 
devices and i can already see this happening with the applications that 
were specially develop for the mambo and moblin platforms.

That is also an indication for me that the need for guides is high and 
should be created as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Jelle