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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Remove Home icon from Desktop (was Mini usability study)
From:       James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj () acm ! org>
Date:       2004-09-28 7:14:52
Message-ID: 41590F6C.9040904 () acm ! org
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Uno Engborg wrote:
> Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>>
>> I conducted a mini-usability study on a 60 year old italian user 
>> (lawyer by profession), used to openoffice and Windows XP.
>> His primary computer usage is word-processing (with both openoffice 
>> writer and Word), home-video editing with pinnacle studio, cd burning, 
>> web browsing, using digital cameras.
>>
>>
>> - "what's this home folder? Where are my disks?" he didn't understand 
>> how to access the files on the windows partition (mounted in /win). 
>> When I showed him the "devices" tab in konqueror's navigation panel, 
>> he said that wasn't the right place to put the disks, and that "they 
>> should be the first thing you see when you click home". When I 
>> explained the concepts of "mounting", and the fact that the disks 
>> appear in a folder determined in suse's YAST, he said it seemed 
>> complicated.
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps its time to remove the home icon from the default desktop and 
> instead present  a folder called "My Documents" or something similar.

Please not "My Documents", M$ probably patented that any way.

> This directoury should be the standard storage area for files that the 
> user creates knowingly by "save" and "save as" actions.

But, yes, you are correct that it shouldn't be the $HOME directory.  I suggested 
this some time ago.  That there be a directory which I call USR-HOME, but you 
can change the actual name.  By default, this is a subdirectory of $HOME and the 
DeskTop is a subdirectory of it.

By default, this should be the working directory for all applications (rather 
than $HOME).

> This would be a good thing for several reasons:
> 
> 
> 1) The term home directory comes from the domain of computers. To 
> understand it you need to know something about multiuser systems.
>     "My Documents" on the other hand comes from the domain of everyday 
> life.  It is no surprise that this test subject doesn't understand the 
> home  directory concept.
> 
Perhaps we could just call it Documents. :-)
> 
> 2) The  unix home directory is used for settings. This means that it 
> contains files that the user not knowingly have put there. This may 
> surprise the user or the user may unintentionally change settings.  
> Normaly the such files should be invisible dot-files but this is not 
> always the case.
> 
Yes, $HOME is already too cluttered to use as the root directory for storage of 
user documents.
> 
> 3) The home icon is hard to internationalize. Not all languages call the 
> home directory something that have to do with homes or houses. I think 
> germans call it Persönlishe Ordner or something like that. This problem 
> probably springs from 1) as the computer concept of having a specific 
> place for the files of each user have been translated diferently in 
> different languages.
> 
Yes that is a valid reason not to call it <something> 'home' but rather 'documents'.
> 
> 4) A user that opens the home directory from the icon on the desktop 
> would expect to be able to press the up arrow, and end up on the 
> desktop. As we all know he doesn't.  A "My Documents" folder should 
> actualy recide in /home/unsername/Desktop
> 
I suppose that that would be OK, but I rather like having the DeskTop in the 
USR-HOME directory.  However, opening the DeskTop directory in KFM is not very 
useful.
> 
> This doesn't solve the "Where is my disk?"  problem, but it would make 
> it simpler for the user to find his documents.

No, but a URL icon for '/' solves if for me.  Is it possible to have a 
QuickBrowser for '/' as a DeskTop icon?  That would be better than just a '/' 
URL icon.

--
JRT
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