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List:       kde-artists
Subject:    Re: K-ARTIST: Fwd: Artwork : KDM User Pictures
From:       Kenneth Wimer <wimer () suse ! de>
Date:       2004-11-04 20:22:37
Message-ID: 20041104202236.GA27811 () suse ! de
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* Adrien Facélina <eriol.loan@wanadoo.fr> [Nov 04. 2004 14:56]:
> On Thursday 04 November 2004 10:50, Kenneth Wimer wrote:
> > When I rewrote kdeutils/kdepasswd/kcm and put it in kdebase, I reduced the
> > amount some. I'm all for changes, but I don't know on what criteria to
> > select images -- should the images simply be pretty, or should they
> > represent identities? This is a usability issue.
> 
> On Thursday 04 November 2004 12:19, Kenneth Wimer wrote:
> > It seems to me that we  do not want anything which represent identies
> > because such visual metaphors might cause problems in different cultures. 
> 
> On Thursday 04 November 2004 13:28, Frans Englich wrote:
> > something like kcontrol/Security & Privacy/Password & User Account. 
> > But that's only if it's the right thing -- e.g. if it should be "identities"
> > instead of only pretty pictures I think images   
> 
> I would say user pictures are meant to be quickly recongnizable from each 
> other. They're not only meant to be fancy. They permitt you not to read each 
> login name and find what identity you're looking for at glance.  Vivid and 
> various colors, different forms are helping that. I
> f you have a root icon that's still all right because you only have one root. 
> But you often do have many users. Why would you prevent people finding who 
> they are with a standard user picture ? Even mandrake penguins are not so 
> usefull. You've to concentrate to realize what emblems makes this penguin 
> yours instead of the others.
> Here is the utility of apparently "only pretty" pictures : they are all 
> different and immediately appear different from each other. You don't 
> hesitate to select yours.
> That's the use.

Exactly. I think that you have misunderstood exactly where I intend to
put some of your pics, and their purpose.

There are 2 places for the icons that appear next to the username (a
suse displays random pics, but you have to read on for that). 

One of them is KDM (the login window). This includes about two icons
(AFAIK although I have not looked at this in a long time so I might be
wrong in some small way), normal-user and root-user. This also makes
sense if you read on...

The other place is in kdepasswd which is more than it sounds like. In
addition to the password funtionality it also allows for personal user
information, including pictures from either the "default set" or from a
persoanl pic in your home or wherever, which are also used in KDM. Neat, huh?

> Then I think it would be confusing, or at least useless to use crystal icons. 
> Crystal icons represent thing on your system you can interact with : 
> filesystem, mime, applications, hardware ... They represent things you will 
> want to work with. Things producing action an result. They make you efficient 
> and productive in a special task. User pictures instead of that are merely a 
> way to identifiate yourself. You don't belong to you computer nor to the work 
> you're doing with. Nothing bounds you to use crystal icons to represent 
> yourself. 
> User pictures would ideally be potographs of the users ! It's your identity 
> you provide a photograph of what you look like. Of cours few people do that. 
> It's boring to do and not quite original. Moreover pictures of you need to be 
> corrected, resized, that's a work you probably don't want to do.
> So user isn't a part of system, he's real and could be represented by 
> photograph if he could. Users like what let them be imaginative and customize 
> what their desktop environment look like. 
> 
> Well, providing pretty photos of different objects, featuring different 
> flavours (forms and colors) is what is the more usable in fact !

I hope that this explains everything. I think that you are right in what
you are saying and that if you understand the situation at hand you will
see that we are both right :-)

Bye,
Kenneth

-- 
SUSE LINUX - a Novell business
-------------------------------------------------------------
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