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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: optionitis
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2002-02-18 13:16:58
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hi...

> for accessibility. But having it just for these two buttons is pretty odd.
> Note that, for example, you can't change the width of the panel applet
> 'handles' that open the relevant menu. If one, why not the other?

your obsessing about this hide button size thing. ;) 

the technical answer is that the applet handles are drawn completely by the 
style in use while the hide button size is controlled by the panel ... this 
could be made better ...

but saying "KDE suffers from featuritis!" implies that this sort of situation 
is overly common. i don't think it is. rather i think the configuration 
dialogs are often confusing, cluttered and designed from a developer's 
viewpoint of the feature groupings as opposed to a user's viewpoint.

kicker's configuration dialog is something of a mess, but the great majority 
of the features in it are quite useful. it just needs a massive face lift.

i think that we are in basic agreement here, except what you call "features" 
i call "configuration dialog options".

> Hmmm. Are you sure about that? I would be surprised if many end users cared
> either way. 

yes, real world usability tests! we NEED this data badly. otherwise all we 
can do is guess.

> This loses fine-grained control. But it makes sense to my Mum. Whereas
> asking users to parse audiocd:/, man:/, https:/ and so forth is quite a big
> demand.

i thought the same thing first time i saw this dialog.

we're not talking featuritis here but, once again, a poorly designed 
configuration interface. or rather, a configuration interface as designed by 
a developer. the underlying feature should remain, but the interface to the 
feature should be tweaked.

> Well, you don't have to have an on-off value. I think a really good example
> of the right way to do this is the initial KDE configuration dialog, with a

there was a HUGE thread on kde-devel regarding this last month. a single 
slider is not enough to gauge all these things since there are so many 
variables involved. increasing the number of sliders helps, but you start 
edging towards complexity without really learning enough to make rational 
decisions.

> The "Mouse" kcontrol module also seems good.

read the email posted earlier today about the Mouse kcontrol. it isn't that 
great.

-- 
Aaron Seigo
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