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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: gtk+ file selector mockups
From:       "Luke Chatburn" <luke () linuxcomment ! com>
Date:       2004-01-07 13:33:49
Message-ID: 000f01c3d522$e4b7f010$6501a8c0 () Furies
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Hiya...

Firstly, I must admit to being happily attached to my KDE fileselector. To
be honest, I don't think there is very much that can/needs to be done to
improve it.

The point of the bookmarks menu duplicating the sidebar to a certain extent
is fair. It does afford additional functionality for power users, and users
who are used to web browser navigation will find it easier to identify with
immediately. Overall, it's not in the way and isn't creating any great
confusion, by all accounts. I'm sure the OSNews OSXers/GNOMErs would object
to having the spare button for anything less than 90% of users, but to my
mind, it's not causing a problem, and honestly does not clutter the
interface. With Crystal, in fact, it uses the star icon, which brightens up
the interface somewhat. If you look at the GTK fs mockups, they are very
utilitarian with almost no icons, no colour and no distinctions between
areas of the interface. To my eyes, it's dull and ugly, but that's just my
opinion. It is also my opinion that KDe does well with end users, because
they see the fileselector and other dialogs and interfaces hour after hour,
day after day, and anything that can brighten up the interface will likely
brighten up the user too. You can say what you like about Windows XP (and I
frequently do), but the new colour scheme, with the blue, green, brighter
icons and cream/brown windows does make things a little less depressing for
the daily user.

As for the editable location field, it really is useful, I'm afraid. Maybe
catching the situation where the user enters the full filename and opening
that peroperly would be more beneficial.

I think the only thing I would change about my KDE fs is the location
drop-down and making that a tree view like Windows uses. Aside from that,
I'm utterly content :)

Oh, and in presentability terms, I'd give the file entries in the selector a
bit of padding( 1px/2px ), to spread them from the edges and each other a
bit more. The density is just a bit too much atm. I suspect this has already
been done for 3.2, though :)

-Luke


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marco Martin" <m4rt@libero.it>
To: <kde-usability@mail.kde.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: gtk+ file selector mockups


> First of all Hi list,
> I stop ehm, lurking because i find this argument very interesting and
> oh, sorry for my pitiful english :)
> Michael Thaler wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > There are interesting articles about the current state of the gtk+
> > file selector on osnews and slashdot:
> >
> > http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5582
> >
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/07/057231.shtml?tid=131&tid=152&tid=185&tid=189
> >
> > There are also some pretty-good looking mockups:
> > http://tigert.gimp.org/files/screenshots/filesel-tig2.png
> > http://www.gnomepro.com/gtk-file-sel2.png
> >
> > While I think, the current KDE file selector is pretty good,
> > functionality-wise, I think, especially the second mockup looks much
> > better and more professional than the current KDE file selector.
> >
> > One of the things I really like in the second gtk+ file selector
> > mockup are the small location icons on the left. The big icons in the
> > KDE file selector need to much space and are just not necessary. I
> > also like that you can add entries via drag&drop.
> > I just realized, that you can also change the icons in the kde file
> > selector to small ones. But in my opinion, the icons are too small
> > than, which makes the file-selector look worse than with the big
> > icons. Medium-sized icons like in the gtk file selector icon would be
> > best, they look good and do not need to much space. And also, for most
> > users, it is not clear, that you can change the icon size at all. So I
> > suggest to add a medium icon-size like in the gtk file selector mockup
> > and make it the default.
>
> I think you're right, it would be nice doing it in the way of Panther:
> the icons in the sidebar are dinamically resized to fit the window, but
> for now is maybe too heavy for X11, so i think 24x24 pixel should be ok.
> Another problem of the current sidebar of the file selector is that it
> have a fixed width, so if the text under the icons is too long an
> horizontal scrollbar appears under the sidebar an that looks very odd:
> if the default look would be text alongside 24x24 icons this problem
> would be even more noticeable.
>
> > Also adding the possibility to add directories to the location list on
> > the left by drag and drop (and indicating it by "Drag & Drop Folders
> > Here to Add) would be very nice. I just realized you can do it by
> > right-clicking the list, but again, most users will not realize and
> > dragging and droppling entries from the file-selector is more
> > convenient anyway.
>
> in 3.2 DnD works, but there is nothing that informs the user that this
> is possible, so for now this feature is hidden to the newUser(tm)
>
> > Would be nice if some of the ideas for the gtk+ file selector given in
> > these articles and by the mockups could also be implemented in the KDE
> > file selector!
>
> Another two things i don't like in the current kde file selector:
>
> There is either the sidebar and the bookmarks menu, which i find only a
> duplication of the same feature, i think the links in the bookmarks menu
> and the links in the sidebar should be the same and when the sidebar is
> enabled the bookmarks menu should be disabled (like the home button in
> the toolbar). The Con would be that the bookmarks menu won't be able to
> have subcategories any longer.
>
> The second thing is that the combobox in the top-right that handles the
> path is editable: i find this useful but i found myself many times
> writing the entire pathname in that box (filename included) and
> wondering why i didn't got the file opened, so i had to write the
> filename in the textbox under the iconview. I find it very confusing.
> It would be good having the top-right combobox no more editable(but in
> this case it will lose functionality) or it should open the file if i
> write for example /home/mart/foo.txt in that box and i press enter, like
>   the filename box.
>
> > Greetings,
> > Michael
>
> -- 
> Mart
> _______________________________________________
> kde-usability mailing list
> kde-usability@mail.kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
>

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