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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    konqueror's kpart system usability
From:       "Yanis Kekatos" <kekatos () gmail ! com>
Date:       2006-07-28 14:24:38
Message-ID: dea3c3190607280724lfcdeaaajcce9d22f263ef5cb () mail ! gmail ! com
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Konqueror's ability to display a lot of different types of files using
the kpart system is one of its greatest advantages.
Though it introduces a lot of usability issues that needs to be solved.

Two of the most important ones are the following:
- The position of the context (kpart) toolbar. Now it's located under
the konqueror's location toolbar. I think this is a bad choice for two
reasons:
Firstly when somebody switch to another tab of konqueror, the position
of the tab bar is moved up and down because some tabs have only
konqueror's toolbars and others have also the kparts' toolbar. So the
user can't predict what the position of the tab bar will be.
Second it would be much better if the the kparts' toolbars are located
'inside' the tab widget, at the top of it. MS Internet Explorer 7 is
implemented in a similar way, although it doesn't have any kpart
similar system (screenshot: http://flickr.com/photos/tk16/29925763/ ).
This way, it will be more intuitive which toolbar belongs to konqueror
and which to the active kpart.Moreover the tab bar will be always on
the same position.
- The second issue is what menu elements are referred to konqueror
actions and what to the kpart object. Right now,it's really difficult
to tell what belongs to konqueror or to the kpart. I have come with
two solutions. The first (that I don't recommend because it will
clutter the interface) is to create a new menu bar for the kpart
object inside the tab widget next to the kpart's toolbar. The second
(and best IMHO) one is to make each kind of the two types of menu
elements different using a visual approach (e.g. slightly different
background color).

A last issue is to establish a universal way of opening files using
kparts or using the stand alone applications. Right now,  when you
click on the files some of them(pdf,pics) are opened using kparts and
others (texts) use the applications. I'm not sure what approach should
followed for this issue.
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