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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KControl again...
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-02-08 1:55:51
Message-ID: 200402071855.51550.aseigo () kde ! org
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On February 07, 2004 03:05, Jamethiel Knorth wrote:
> I have been working on a general re-design of KControl. I'm a designer, not
> a programmer, so there are only UI files and screenshots.

cool that you are interested in working through these things. i've taken a 
brief look at the screenshots and here are some suggestions:

 o pick one thing at a time to address. looking at dozens of screenshots / UI 
files is simply information overload, at least for me. i really don't know 
where to begin, and there are many things to address, some stylistic and some 
technical.

 o take a look at things in 3.2. some things have changed. for the better.

 o buttons that open subdialogs are the devil and should be avoided at all 
cost. they are a _last_ _resort_. i notice in your layout for window 
decorations that you have a "Buttons..." button. this is why God invented the 
tabwidget. even though it stinks, it stinks less than having sub-dialogs.

 o take a look at kdenonbeta/kstyle2 (i think that's the directory) for work 
being done on a new metatheme panel.

 o keep translations in mind. some languages are amazingly verbose, and that 
needs to be kept in mind.

and am i right in figuring that not all of these UIs are for control panels, 
but some are for applications? i see work on both kalarm and kuser in there, 
both of which are VERY much in need of work, but neither of which are in 
kcontrol. nor should they ever be.

anyways.. where do you want to begin?

i'd really like to suggest working on the application ones: kalarm, kuser, 
etc.

> In addition to the modules, I have been re-laying-out the module positions
> in the tree. This isn't noted anywhere on the page, but the structure of
> the menu on the left-hand-side of the page is my current idea for a control
> panel layout. The layout idea with not-yet-designed modules included can be
> found at:
>
> http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/~abreschm/designs/the-control-panel/sources/checkl
>ist.html

1) no application settings in KControl
2) only one level deep. anything more is unusable.
3) no more rearrangements of the tree. 
4) re-read 3.
5) if you really want to fix things (and i think we all do) work on the UI of 
kcontrol itself, not fidgeting around with the ordering of the tree.

the "tree on the left, stuff on the right" simple UI approach is BROKEN.

> The design further calls for the control-center layout to be easily
> modifiable through a control module (not yet finished with design).

this is not something we need as a control panel. 

> With a 
> more easily modifiable control center, areas can be locked or unlocked by
> the administrator (one of the module designs notes some issues in regard to
> that).

this really belongs in the KPrivelege stuff that Waldo is working on. the 
kiosk infrastructure can manage access, the XDG .desktop menu standard can 
provide user/group-specific control over the layout of the panels in 
necessary which should really be secondary to a decent non-tree-centric UI 
anyways.

please don't be discouraged with this response. it is really great to see 
someone working on things here, but i think you may be working at odds with 
some of the current directions within KDE. of course, you can't know that 
without interaction with the project, which it looks like you've started. 
which is great! =)

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
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