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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: another idea
From:       Diego Moya <turingt () gmail ! com>
Date:       2005-10-21 22:03:19
Message-ID: 11ee04940510211503n52f78e66w () mail ! gmail ! com
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On 21/10/05, Peppe <cerebro84@vodafone.it> wrote:
> Another idea is: a switch. Applications should start with
> their default configuration, but after an amount of time
> (e.g. 1 week) the application informs the user that it's
> gonna hide some buttons he didn't use and show some new
> buttons that were menus items he often used.

Candidate for #2 in my FAQ list... :-)

This is what Microsoft Office 2000 did to menus and Windows XP to
desktop objects, and is regarded as a horrible idea. The computer
shouldn't *ever* automatically move user objects to arbitrary places.

A good solution could be to *propose* making the change (of course
with an unobtrusive dialog), and let the user make the final decision.
But the user space must be under user control, not under the machine
will. Having a hidden place where the moved items go is a somewhat
average compromise for not having all options all time on screen (as I
said this approach was developed by Microsoft, and now they bemoan
it).

Usually the best solution is not randomly moving things from one place
to other, but develop a good information architecture (i.e. put things
in logical places) from the beginning. This is the approach followed
by the new interface for MS Office 12 - commands are shown when
they're relevant to the current task, and hidden when they don't.
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