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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Yet another desktop BG dialog
From:       Keunwoo Lee <klee () cs ! washington ! edu>
Date:       2003-02-21 7:37:57
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Aaron J. Seigo writes:

> in KDE the wallpaper and color settings are not modal. they are combined
> according to the blending option. it isn't either/or, it's both/and
> (unless the user says no to one or the other, of course.

In other words, the wallpaper and color settings are modal.  The
definition of "mode", from the chapter on dialog design in the Foley/van
Dam/Feiner/Hughes graphics textbook:

  "Loosely defined, a mode is a state or collection of states in which
  just a subset of all user-interaction tasks can be performed."

In KDE, the desktop background has three modes: color, wallpaper, and
blended---or, actually, four, if you count running an external program.  
In any of these four modes, some tasks cannot be performed.  For example,
in wallpaper-only mode, the user's selection of color has no effect
whatsoever on the desktop; the color-changing task is not available.

Or, at least, it shouldn't be.  In fact, it appears to be available, but
does nothing.  So the user who changes the colors when the wallpaper is
activated sees no change, and gets frustrated, as in the original GNOME
usability report.

(BTW, chapters 8-10 in the Foley et al. book are great reading---high
signal-to-noise ratio compared to most HCI writing.)

> if we want to make it bleeding obvious, we could put a checkbox "Use
> wallpaper" and "Use colors" in each groupbox that toggled on/off all the
> items in the group boxes and remove the <None> entry from the wallpapers
> combobox, the No Blending item from blend groupbox and only activate the
> Blend group when both picture and colours are activiated. i'd just be
> worried about vertical height for 800x600 resolutions.

Good interfaces should be bleeding obvious, no?  I think your suggestion
above would improve the design you posted on Jan. 31.

(Incidentally, the first design I posted is 482 pixels high even in the
space-eating Keramik widget theme, including OK/Cancel buttons and KStep
window decos.  This compares favorably with e.g. the current Desktop ->
Panels -> Arrangement dialog.  What's the maximum reasonable height for a
dialog on 800x600?)

Also, you didn't mention the modality of the single-image/slide show
wallpaper setting.  In this respect, the 3.1 dialog (which is explicitly
modal) is actually better than the design you posted on Jan. 31.

However, the 3.1 design is still worse than the design I posted yesterday,
because in 3.1 the single/multiple radio buttons are spatially far away
from the widgets (selector combo box/"Setup multiple images..." button)  
that are enabled/disabled by their behavior.  In design I posted, the
radios are right next to the selectors.

Of ocurse, this is a separable issue from the color/wallpaper/blend
modality.  You could easily modify your design to reflect the single
image/slide show modes: raise the Positioning box above the picture
selector, and put radios in front of the Picture/Slide show choices.

> yes.... how many people set their background image at all? of those, how
> many use the various features and how many have difficulties with the
> different parts of it? this dialog only affects those people who
> actually set their backgrounds, who are already probably in the
> minority.

Actually, *all* my Windows and Mac-using friends set the background on
their personal machines, to say nothing of Linux people.  Whenever a
visitor gives a PowerPoint presentation at our dept., his/her wallpaper
(you get a peek when they're opening the presentation) is customized.  I
think nearly 100% of users change their wallpaper, even less technical
users.  In fact, the only people I've ever seen who don't change their
background are those using machines that don't belong to them, or those
who don't bother because their desktop manager makes it too hard.  
Wallpaper is perhaps the one customization that everybody understands.

So, this is a dialog box that close to 100% of people are going to use.  
OK, most of them will only use it once or twice per major OS upgrade.  
Still, it would be nice if KDE had the most usable desktop bg dialog box
possible.

OTOH I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that KDE won't be dropping
blending or GUI support for xearth.  Dropping geeky eye candy is just
about impossible in the current KDE culture.

Anyway, I have a couple of ideas for a dialog that incorporates elements
of both your Jan. 31 design and my recent one, but I'm way too busy to
mock it up today (yes, I know this email is quite long for someone who
claims to be busy ;) but believe me, mocking up a halfway-decent dialog
would take me longer than writing this did).

~k

-- 
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