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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE 3.0.2 Usability Study - First Steps
From:       Eric Christopherson <rakko () charter ! net>
Date:       2002-07-18 4:22:26
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On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 10:38:22PM -0400, Matt Bonyak wrote:
(Sebastien Biot wrote:)
> "One user, when asked to move files from one directory to another (task 2), 
> selected all icons, right-clicked to select cut from the context menu, then 
> selected the destination folder, right-clicked again and selected paste from 
> the context menu. A Windows user, he was expecting that this would move all 
> files to the directory he had selected. What happened instead was that his 
> files were moved to the selected directory's parent directory."
(Matt's response:)
>  - We all do silly things when we first learn a new interface.  Some things, 
> like this, are just a matter of learning the KDE way.  I wouldn't make any 
> changes here -- once you make the (easily correctable) mistake, it probably 
> (hopefully) won't happen again.  The same goes for the single click, only 
> that one takes a bit longer to learn.

I highly disagree with you on this one. I've been bitten by it many times
before, and can see no reason why it doesn't paste them into the directory
represented by the selected icon. After all, if you drag files onto a
directory icon, it puts them in that directory, not its parent.

I would have to say that the option to paste files into the directory
currently being viewed (as opposed to the one whose icon is selected) should
either a) only be available when no icons are selected or b) be a separate
action entirely. Of course, there are problems: with a, I have been told
recently that in some directory views there simply is no "blank space" where
a user could right-click to bring up a menu for the context of that view
instead of the context of an icon in it; with b, what would we *call* the
two actions? Maybe something like "Paste in current folder" vs. "Paste in
selected folder"?

In any case, I really think it's lousy behavior as it stands now.

-- 
Eric Christopherson, a.k.a. Contrarian Conlanger Rakko ^_^
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