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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDesktop RMB-menu redesign
From:       "Gerold J. Wucherpfennig" <gjwucherpfennig () gmx ! net>
Date:       2002-08-02 23:32:19
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On Friday August 2 2002 19:25, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Friday 02 August 2002 04:55, Gerold J.Wucherpfennig wrote:
> > I want to readd the "Line Up" item that was removed after the
> > KDesktop RMB- redesign.
> >
> > Now we have this items in the "Icons" RMB-menu:
> >
> > Sort ->
> > ----
> > Line Up Horizontally
> > Line Up Vertically
> > ----
> >
> > But how to name it? We already have
> > "Line Up Horizontally" and "Line Up Vertically".
>
> i still don't understand why you want to add Line Up again.

The current implementation:

1. The icons are lined up vertically and you click at "Line Up Horizontally".
   Then the icons will be rearranged.
2. You click at "Line Up Horizontally" again and the icons will be lined up
   in a grid.   

Problems with this implementation:

"Line Up ..." does two different things, depending on the current state.
It will either rearrange the icons or line them up in a grid.

Most people don't know about this two different things.

Many people don't even know if the arrangement is set to *horizontal*
or *vertical*.
(
On my desktop the icons are distributed all over the screen.
So I don't care about arrangement settings.
But after I put a new item on the desktop I want to line up the icons again 
(in a grid). I *don't* want to rearrange them.
But since Aarons recent changes I often click on the wrong "Line Up..."
and ALL my desktop icons are rearranged :-(
)

> i've asked a
> few times, but you haven't answered. so here goes one more time:
I wasn't subscribed to kde-devel and only recieved one mail from you
about this issue.

>
> picking Line Up Horizontally when they are already horizontally aligned
> simply calls KDIconView::lineupIcons(). this is the same method that the
> old "Line Up" item used to call. same goes for picking Line Up Vertically
> if they are already Vertically aligned. in other words, if you don't change
> the orientation the behaviour is the same as it was before. old behaviour
> == new behaviour.
Yes I know (read above)

>
> if this is not happening for you in CVS HEAD, then it is a bug and should
> be fixed (it works here).
This is happening for me too ;-)

> the whole idea is that another option for "Line
> Up" should *not* be necessary.
IMO it is (read above)

>
> so, once again:
>
>       what would Line Up do differently from what is there right now?
This line up wouldn't do rearranging or line up depending on the current
arrangement settings(H or V), but only line up (keep it simple for the users,
please read above and below to understand this).

>
> > What should I do, usability-wise?
>
> not seperate the setting from the action, since in this case they are
> really one and the same. fortunately, this has already been achieved w/out
> changing the behaviour AFAIK.

NO as I said above this are two different behavours depending on the current
arrangement settings(H or V). And it is very difficult for the user to realize
that. Users will think that they did something wrong and get frustrated and
blame themselfes. This is very bad. (look at the osnews.com article)


The solution:

- "Line Up..." mustn't have two different behavours!

- IMO the /best/ and my initial solution is to put
  two Checkbox-items as radio-buttons into RMB->Icons->Sort Icons.
  This items would be "Horizontally" and "Vertically".
  They shouldn't rearrange and shouldn't line up the icons.
  They should instead only change the arrangement settings, like
  RMB->Icons->Sort Icons->Directories first.
  Finally the /old/ "Line up" item should be readded to
  RMB->Icons.

- Aaron didn't like that initial solution so I made an
  other suggestion with less changes:
  Use the current "Line Up ..."s to rearrange h/v.
  Don't use them to line up icons in a grid.
  Readd the old "Line Up" with a new name.



If you have further questions, please send me an email, though now I've
resubscribed to kde-devel and got CVS-write access, because this issue
annoyed me that much.


EOF
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