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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE 3.0.2 Usability Study - First Steps
From:       Simon Edwards <simon () simonzone ! com>
Date:       2002-07-19 9:02:04
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On Thursday 18 July 2002 23:51, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> <analysis>
> I think the problem is the combination of two tasks: "selection" on one
> hand and "navigation/activation" on the other. When you use double clicking
> you can combine those tasks by binding selection to single click and
> navigation/activation to double click. Maybe it's time to realize that that
> just isn't possible if you only have single clicking.
> </analysis>

That's basically the situation yes. What should be done in the file browser 
depends more on what kind of app you view the file browser as:

1) Kind of like a data editing app (like a word processor, or gfx app) where 
you the icons and filenames represent data, and you primarily make selections 
then apply actions to the selections.

2) More like a web page where the icons and filenames represent actions and 
'destinations' themselves, and action is immediately taken as soon as you 
click on them. (i.e. there is no real concept of selection).

Traditionally the desktop and filebrowsers have been #1 oriented, with 
selection being put up front and double-click being a shortcut to the default 
action. (This point of view suggests that there should be menu items, toolbar 
buttons, and RMB context menu items that also allow you to perform the 
default action on the current selection, with double-click just being a 
shortcut. Oddly enough, in Konq the RMB menu has "New Window" which kind of 
does an "Open"/default action... maybe it is miss-named. Anyway...)

ok, that's enough analysis today. To me it appears that grabbing the web page 
model and trying to make it fit to desktops and filebrowsers may not actually 
work that well...

cheers,

-- 
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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