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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: kcontrol patch #4 - Icon View Mode
From:       Tom Hoferek <yoamwmvs () umail ! corel ! com>
Date:       2001-03-28 16:16:24
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David Faure wrote:

> On Monday 26 March 2001 22:52, Carlo Robazza wrote:
> > Patch #4
> > ------
> >
> > I removed the View menu thereby removing the Icon view mode. The icon
> > view mode was found to be unintuitive.
>
> Did you take Accessibility into account for that study ?
> Icons, especially with a configurable size as is the case in KControl,
> provide much bigger objects than the small listview items.

Icons have come about in interfaces for a variety of reasons, but I seriously doubt
accesibility is one of them. They are great for toolbars because they are compact
and provide handy shortcuts to menus, etc.. Most icons need to be learned before
they are recognized by users, so at some point they are coupled with text. Text is
far more effective at communicating than icons are. I would argue that for the sake
of accessibility in the Control Center, users must be able to adjust the font size
of the labels so that they can read them. The size of the icons is secondary at
best.

> The removal of the modules menu (#3) is probably related to this - not
> needed with the treeview but probably helpful in iconview mode.
>
> PS: I especially disagree with #2, the embedded search is very handy.

This may be a personal preference of yours, but the separate search window has some
points in favour when it comes to usability. See me response in the 'kcontrol patch
#1' thread.

Cheers,

Tom

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