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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: E-Mail Scrolling in KMail/Kontact
From:       David Legg <david () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2005-03-23 16:58:58
Message-ID: 200503231659.10130.david () actuaria ! co ! uk
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On Wednesday Wed, 23 Mar 2005 11:21:58, John Tapsell wrote:
> Given the size of this thread, it's very hard for you to claim they people
> aren't paying attention to you.

I haven't said that, and I pretty much knew people were going to take it the 
wrong way - my fault really.

As people, including many KDE developers, have been talking about getting KDE 
and Kontact into business and organisational environments I'm trying to give 
you some hints on what will actually be required. Presumably this is a 
subject that will be discussed a lot at aKademy 2005, if that is a goal that 
KDE would largely like to strive for. If it is, then all I'm saying is it's 
not the large technical problems that matter (which Kontact passes with 
flying colours) but actually the small issues and attention to detail, like 
this one, that present the biggest speed bumps into getting KDE and Kontact 
into these environments. This isn't something that will 'just happen' I'm 
afraid.

If that isn't what you want then this isn't a problem at all and we can end 
this thread and close all the open bugs on this subject now. Just leave 
things the way they are and maintain the status quo. I'm not demanding 
anything from anyone in any way whatsoever, just pointing out what will be 
needed in a real environment if that's really where you want to go.

Is this really what you all want? That's my point.

> I've read every one of the many postings in this thread and haven't actually
> seen you give a good suggestion on what the solution is.

I've given ample description on what the solution is, but it's probably got 
lost now. The solution is to allow the user to scroll through their e-mail 
list with their vertical arrow keys. I've went over what the usage pattern is 
for this that I've observed. The main focus is the e-mail list when people 
are checking their mail, not the view pane of the e-mail. Keep that in mind.

Allow a user to scroll through their e-mail list with their vertical arrow 
keys by default (as this is their primary focus). Why? Because their e-mail 
list is logically vertical. If the view pane is focused, then allow the user 
to go through that with their vertical arrow keys as that is now where their 
primary focus now is. There is a nice blue outline on textboxes etc. in KDE 
(and in this mail window I'm writing in now) that denote that they are 
focused. From my experience (and others), they are *extremely* (major 
emphasis here) useful. Don't tell me KDE can't do useful things 
usability-wise - it can. That would be a big usability plus here, as you sit 
down and you don't know what's focused and what isn't in Outlook and other 
clients half the time - in fact, that's a lot of the problem.

You could also just flip the directional controls around as they are now. 
Allow up/down arrow key scrolling within the e-mail list (primary function), 
and allow left/right arrow keys to scroll through the e-mail in the view 
pane. It's not perfect I know (we just don't have two sets of up/down keys - 
or do we?), but it reflects and fits better the primary function the vast 
majority of users are trying to perform.

Cheers,

David

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