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On October 3, 2009, Ben Cooksley wrote:
> Currently in System Settings the categories structure is not very easy
> to use, and makes finding settings harder than it should be. In order
> to correct this, a complete re-structure of the modules is required,
> removing the General / Advanced sorting and giving modules clear
> names.

a reorganization idea happens every so many months. i push back on them nea=
rly=20
every time for the following reasons:

* the re-orgs are almost never done with usability testing; it's someone's=
=20
best idea of the day

* any organization of that many settings as they currently are will have=20
failings; it's a scope problem

* users learn the structure of the modules; when we change the structure on=
=20
them all that learning is thrown away and they "get" to start over.

so unless there's some proven benefit to this (yet another) run at=20
reorganizing things, please don't. it's a disservice to our users.

i'm not saying it couldn't be better, but let's be sure it gets done better=
=20
instead of trying and running the risk of probably ending up with another n=
ot-
great arrangement.

in the proposal made there are already evident issues with "look" (which=20
should be appearance iirc?) and "behaviour"; there's inconsistency such as=
=20
"semantic search" (tech jargon; wtf is "semantic", asks the user) when the =
UI=20
the user sees in the workspace just says "Search Service".

what is so "personal" about the items in the Personal? other than user=20
account, they aren't more "personal" than anything else. it's a dumping gro=
und=20
category.

"Plasma" is shown in the UI. that is not what we show the user. we show the=
=20
user "Workspace". the word "Plasma" should never be seen in the generic=20
control UI.

"Plasma Containments" is two jargon words put together. we should not be us=
ing=20
jargon _anywhere_ in our UIs that the average user is meant to go through. =
in=20
this case the name should be "Desktop Activities". it's a moot point in thi=
=20
case, though, as this panel doesn't belong there at all (unless it's someth=
ing=20
other than what the name suggests?)

Workspace and Application is lumped together under "look" and "behaviour"=20
categories; is such a division meaningful? should it be divided into Worksp=
ace=20
and Application instead, since that's how we're purposefully dividing thing=
s=20
visually in the user experience? what do the control panels themselves lend=
=20
themselve towards?

what's the difference between "Connections Manager" and "Connection Setting=
s"?=20
what "Resources" are being "shared"?

is "Multimedia" really hardware?

would it make more sense to have Workspace / Applications / System instead =
of=20
Personal / W & A Behaviour / Hardware?

and so on ..

i really think this needs to be done with a greater amount of usability inp=
ut=20
and principles applied and with subsequent rounds of testing.

it will also probably mean reworking the content of some control panels.

=2D-=20
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Development Frameworks

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