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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: General KDE Usability
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2004-07-13 22:48:59
Message-ID: 200407132349.09189.segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk
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On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 19:53:47, Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> What do others think about this ?
> Currently there is the web browser profile and the file management profile
> on kicker.
> Now I also think having the "select your konqy profile"-button on kicker
> would be a good idea.
> This would make three buttons for konqy.

No, don't do that. With all of the profiles think of what usage it will have - 
how will a user think about it? "I need to do web browsing" - web browsing 
profile. "I need to handle my files" - file manager profile. They are the two 
main profiles, and will need to have different toolbars, menus and 
Settings... menus - but all providing a consistent method of browsing. 
Everything should be familiar between profiles, even though they may provide 
focused functionality.

This has the potential to be pretty damn good (that's a severe 
understatement), but also for providing a mess of different profiles, none of 
which a user can really decide upon. It could be much worse than what we have 
now. Let's try and avoid that. What significance would "Select your Profile" 
have in terms of the functions a user wanted to perform?

More advanced stuff might be "I need to manage my stuff via FTP" - FTP 
profile. "I want to browse the network" - network browser. This could be put 
away in a convenient place so that users aren't bombarded with ten dozen 
profiles. I would use all of these profiles, but I wouldn't want to see them 
all by default when I first started with KDE - I'd customize, because I'm a 
power user. If you want a profile in there then you add it.

Please bear in mind that the "I want to...." statements I've got above are 
what a user will be thinking - what actions they want to perform. They are 
not a model for the names of the links these Konqui profiles should have! 
Good usability means not being insulting.

> I'm not sure if one of the two default buttons could/should be removed.
> But I'm quite sure not many people will find the new button if we don't put
> it on kicker by default.

No, I wouldn't do it like that. Put the two most used profiles, web browsing 
and file browsing, in there *prominently* - and do them well. The technology 
you're describing could then provide an awesome basis for providing different 
views depending on what a user wants to do, as I've described above. That's 
good usability. You provide the functions users will want to do immediately, 
but you do not restrict them at all if they want and need to have additional 
browsing capabilities and you give them those capabilities. If people want 
more then they can create their own views because the technology allows that. 
Who said usability meant no power features?

I have a number of, pretty simple, ideas for improving the usability of 
Konqueror as a file browser. The buttons on the side of Konqueror are a good 
way of adding useful functionality, but some of the stuff you would use 
together is split up. Your home directory, devices and the network are a few 
such examples, because just about everyone is going to copy files to and from 
their Home folder, floppies, CDs, drives and the network. Fitts' Law again. 
Common stuff needs to be together. I can already browse my network files, and 
stuff on my devices real, really well with KDE through the file dialogues. 
People should be able to do the same with the Konqueror file manager.

The side bar in Konqueror is a good idea, but I haven't thought of enough 
ideas for managing it better yet apart, from moving some of the most used 
stuff around.

> I also hacked on a kicker button which opens a menu delayed (like in konqy,
> kmail, konsole, etc.), but most people were against this, so I didn't
> commit. This would have given us the chance to add to both konqy buttons
> the menu with profiles.

This is really great technology, but try and channel it into how people would 
use it. Also, bear in mind that what we're describing here is something that 
has never really been achieved on any desktop with any browser.

Cheers,

David
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