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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE 3.0.2 Usability Study - First Steps
From:       Simon Edwards <simon () simonzone ! com>
Date:       2002-07-18 5:26:52
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On Thursday 18 July 2002 06:29, Alistair Davidson wrote:
>  --- Matt Bonyak <dingodonkey@stny.rr.com> wrote: > On
> Wednesday 17 July 2002 09:51 pm, Sebastien Biot
> > wrote:
> > The same goes for
> > the single click, only
> > that one takes a bit longer to learn.
> I reckon that double-click is very poor usability.

Well, the test shows the opposite...

Personally I can't stand single click at all, especially in the file browser. 
How the hell are you supposed to select things when single click mode also 
causes them to be opened???

> I
> watched a new computer user yesterday puzzling over
> why double-click was used on icons and single-click on
> buttons in apps.

Few people seem to have that problem. Basically, icons, or objects in a list 
represent something (and object, noun), while buttons just commands (verbs). 
Objects can be selected (single click), and also have action taken on them 
(double-click). Selection doesn't make any sense for buttons of course. They 
are two very different kinds of animals, and I think most users can see the 
distinction...

> > "At least one user started working on one of the
> > compressed files as if it had
> > been available to her (and the file system) in its
> > uncompressed form."
> >  - I agree, this is a problem.  Perhaps there should
> > be an indicator
> > (immediate thought: very soft gold-yellow [or any
> > other light colour] stripe
> > at the bottom with short white text reminding the
> > user that they are in a
> > compressed file, and that it is read-only)?
>
> I'd change the whole window background colour, because
> it effects the whole folder.

Actually I'd be tempted to go a big more extreme. Choose a colour (like 
gold-yellow) and use it to mark areas which are inside an archive. i.e. the 
background from the filelist in an archive would be yellow, the background in 
the URL view would be yellow (take "/home/sbe/stuff.tar.gz/mystuff.txt", 
"mystuff.txt" would have a yellow background)  Basically to building up a 
'feeling' for the user that they are operating in a special area and not just 
a normal part of the file system. (Disclaimer: I'm just throwing this idea 
out right now, it could be improved. :) )

I've received email about Guarddog in the past from someone who was viewing 
the tar ball in the Konq but then was having trouble running the shell 
commands. The archive *looked* like it was expanded...

-- 
Simon Edwards             | Guarddog Firewall
simon@simonzone.com       | http://www.simonzone.com/software/
Nijmegen, The Netherlands | "ZooTV? You made the right choice."


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