From kde-usability Fri Sep 23 18:12:32 2005 From: fourhead Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:12:32 +0000 To: kde-usability Subject: Proposal for KDE 4 Message-Id: <200509232012.40223.fourhead () geekspot ! de> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-usability&m=112749925005456 MIME-Version: 1 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--===============0011155627==" --===============0011155627== Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="nextPart1854699.IVCrlF5Sps"; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=pgp-sha1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --nextPart1854699.IVCrlF5Sps Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline =46irst, let me say hello to everybody, I'm new here, I have many ideas, an= d=20 since it's my job to set up computers for absolutely non-technical people, = I=20 think I can tell a lot of the problems people have that are new to=20 computers :-) Today I found a very interesting mockup of how KDE 4 could look: http://kde-artists.org/main/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,48/expv,0/topic= ,417.0 I think this mockup has some very interesting ideas that should be consider= ed.=20 It basically shows a document- or task-oriented design, instead of a=20 application-oriented design. In the top left, you have a few menus that giv= e=20 you direct access to most common functions. "Create" lets you create text=20 documents, presentations, burn CDs etc. "Communicate" gives you quick acces= s=20 to all your friends and to the internet. "Configure" gives you quick access= =20 to the most common sysem config options. The idea is kind of radical, but I think it's worth it. Non-technical peopl= e=20 that sit in front of a computer don't want to work with programs, they want= =20 to get their work done. They don't want to use KOffice, they want to create= =20 an text document. They don't want to open K3b (what does that mean=20 actually?), they want to burn a CD. An interface similar to this mockup would give you the ability to concentra= te=20 of what you actually want to do. If you want to write an email to a friend,= =20 you don't have to care about your mail program, remember your friend's mail= =20 address etc., you just click "Communicate->Contacts->Mary->Send mail". That= s=20 quick and intuitive. I came up with a few more ideas that I've also posted in the threaded linke= d=20 above. I would get rid of the "Configure" button and instead add a button=20 "Computer" and a button "Media". The computer buttons has these entries=20 (propably a few more): =2D Browse files =2D Log off =2D Shutdown =2D Hibernate =2D Configure =2D Lock screen Well, I think you get the point. A menu "Media" could contain entries like: =2D Watch a movie =2D View photos =2D Listen to music =2D Listen to webradio =2E.. and stuff like that. Now, what do these link actually do (in the Medi= a=20 menu)? Well, I was thinking about a file browser to be something like an=20 "universal file open dialog". Look at the file browser in the mockup: It=20 combines concepts of Konqueror and desktop search apps like Beagle. Now whe= n=20 you click "Media->Watch a movie" this file browser could pop up, being=20 auto-configured to show you only video files, and your DVD drive if a DVD i= s=20 inserted. I mean, thas what you want, you want to watch a movie, so the=20 computer presents you a list of all movies on your computer. Of course this= =20 list should be well organized, like showing recently used movies first,=20 ordering by some criteria etc. Today, if I want to watch a movie, I have to either open Konqueror, browse= =20 trough all my directories until I'm in my video directory, find the one I=20 want to look at and click it. Or I open a video application, click "Open=20 file" and do the same searching. I think the approach shown in this mockup= =20 would be much more intuitive and useful. So, this top-left menu should be only for the most common tasks. The=20 "Contacts" menu for example could show you only the 20 most frequently used= =20 contacts, the "Read mail" menu could just display new messages etc. If you= =20 want to see ALL yourcontacts, you can click on "Contact book" and you'll se= e=20 them, reorganize them etc. But the most common tasks - actually contacting= =20 your contact, or perhaps update his telephone number, you can do right on t= he=20 desktop. Now about this file browser. Well, actually, it's about apps in general. I= =20 think most KDE apps today are just too bloated, too cluttered and too=20 overwhelming when you look at them. Honestly, it's sometimes not fun to loo= k=20 at them, and with each KDE workstation I set up I first spend a few hours=20 removing all this unecessary stuff that 90% of all users will never use. A= =20 default installation of Showimg for example has 26!!! toolbar buttons! I=20 immideately removed it, this was just too much to look at. I tried to just= =20 quickly look at a photo fullscreen, and you first have to go trough this=20 mile-long toolbar to find the "fullscreen" button. It's somewhere in the=20 middle, it's the 18th button actually. Am I the only one using the fullscre= en=20 button so often? Should't this be on the very left, large and bright, easy = to=20 recognize and easy to find? Well, I hope I don't sound like ranting, but I love KDE and I want it to be= =20 the easiest, cleanest, smoothest, straight-forwardest and user-friendliest= =20 desktop on the world, and think KDE needs some work to achieve this. I'm looking forward to your comments! Tom --nextPart1854699.IVCrlF5Sps Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBDNEWYl84/QXEq7NURAhHaAKDL/p3eh8QiECDvDIKWVNab1sUfdwCghBHp LopLsx2Xa8ATzMviX26AwTQ= =SvBK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart1854699.IVCrlF5Sps-- --===============0011155627== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline _______________________________________________ kde-usability mailing list kde-usability@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability --===============0011155627==--