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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Usability and open source
From:       "Tomas Furmonavicius" <f1926 () kaunas ! aiva ! lt>
Date:       2000-01-31 16:49:16
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On Mon, Jan 31, 2000 at 10:00:11AM -0500, Tyler Regas wrote:
> Icons are, if properly used, a simple way to speed up application use and
> comprehension. MS kills this with hundreds of toolbar buttons in all Office
> apps. This is not a positive use of icons. First, having so many icons
> means that someone has to come up with a reasonable graphical
> representation of the action performed. With the size of most icons (16x16)
> on toolbars, more than 10 is insane.
> 
> Text, OTOH, can also be a mess. Imagine having to use KFM with all text
> menus:
> 
> File Edit View Go Bookmarks Options
> Up Back Forward Home Refresh Copy Paste Help Stop Help
> Location: file:/root/blah/more_blah/more_blah_blah/sheep_dip
> 
> Fortunately, this is not the case and there are simple, easy to understand
> icons instead. Take a look at Communicator's Personal Bookmarks bar and
> you'll note that each textual item has a folder icon leading it. This
> cleanly breaks up the line and individual bookmarks are distinguishable
> from said folders.

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I'm not against toolbar icons. Toolbars
with these small and sometimes awkward icons is currently the best
(probably) way to access common functions with the mouse quickly. It's
a users problem to keep the count of toolbars ant tool buttons at
reasonable level. It's not true, that toolbars are for newbies -
toolbars are for experienced users, who know which operations needs
more mouse input, which more keyboard input and can setup UI
accordingly.

I don't understand icons in popup menus. I think in that they should
help to associate menu entries and toolbar buttons more easily, but in
fact I better wait for tooltip showing the "name" of the tool button,
and then I can find menu item with the same "name" more easily (if I
really need it). But maybe it's just me :-). Anyway, when I wrote my
own KDE 2.x style plugin, I intentionally suppressed output of these
icons in popup menus and found such UI easier on eyes and mind ;-)

Tomas

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