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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: K-Menu/Xandros Launch
From:       Waldo Bastian <bastian () kde ! org>
Date:       2002-09-21 19:10:42
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On Saturday 21 September 2002 01:06 am, Michael E. Peligro wrote:
> I notice a rather uncomfortable "finding" in the paragraph. "People work
> with applications"? I personally prefer Apple's findings that "People work
> with documents (or types of files)". Like, "my mp3 file, my graphic files,
> my pictures, my movies, my documents". "File-centric", rather than
> "Application-Centric" is more "real-world" and easy-to-relate. Examples of
> user conversations: "I have a lot of mp3 files in that computer. A lot more
> pictures" I have a text document, etc.." Users almost and always speak of
> files as products of their work. Apps are only means to this end.

When creating the current style guide we played with the idea that "people 
work with documents". While this is true, it is not true to the extent that 
people don't care about applications as long as "applications" are visible 
and have an impact on the user experience. 

An important point: editing two files by clicking on the first document, 
closing the document, clicking on the second document and then closing the 
second document tends to be a more cumbersome way of doing things than 
opening the first document, closing the first document but not the 
application, opening the second document in the still open application and 
then closing the application.

Depending on the application, starting an application takes a very noticible 
time and disrupts the workflow of the user, so being able to reuse the 
application brings real benefits to the user.

In the above example this document-oriented way of working works a lot better 
when applications load instantly (e.g. within 0.2 sec) but unfortunately that 
is not the reality of today. (Although it is certainly a goal)

Taking that reality into account the style guide acknowledged that there is 
both room for a document oriented way of working and an application oriented 
way of working. The document oriented way of working is represented by the 
SDI approach which is strongly advocated by KDE and which has strong 
architectural support in for example KParts.

Apart from the above I think you can also identify a "task oriented approach", 
which comes more closely to an application oriented approach. I think MS 
Outook is an example of such approach and people seem to like it very much.

Cheers,
Waldo
- -- 
bastian@kde.org  |   SuSE Labs KDE Developer  |  bastian@suse.com
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