[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Printers and Scanners module for KDE4
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2006-11-07 1:04:26
Message-ID: 200611061804.27089.aseigo () kde ! org
[Download RAW message or body]

[Attachment #2 (multipart/signed)]


On Monday 06 November 2006 16:55, Iñaki wrote:
> Hi, I've created a mockup about the "printers and scanners" module for the
> incoming KDE4.
>
> Basically I try to improve the usability of the actual "printers" module
> that I consider too much complex, with excesive and duplicated options, and
> non intuitive for common users.

yes, it is too complex. however, i think you may have taken it too far in the 
other direction with your mock up. perhaps we can find a middle ground.

your conclusions are:

 - "Remove the Printer menu because its unnecesary and dupplicated, so 
confused."

quite true. however, there's nothing in the mockup that says "if you click on 
this printer you'll get options". it's also quite non-standard to click on 
something and have a context menu show. perhaps it could be made much more 
obvious with an actual "Actions" button or something that visually 
says "click here for a menu". there's no reason the printers have to be the 
usual hum-drum icons.

 - "Put the share printer in the context menu of each printer."

makes sense. unless one wants to share -all- their printers? doing it one by 
one is onerous.

 - Hide the Print Manager in an "Advanced" menu.

that's probably fine, though i don't see it in the mockup?

 - "Remove so many options about the view, orientation and toolbars. In fact, 
remove the View menu and include it just as context menu of the empty space 
in the printers list."

.. making it quite hard to find. what's wrong with putting that in the 
Advanced menu as well? would bring it up to 4 items (5 if one includes 
scanners here) plus a sub menu for View. 

as to why there are view options in the first place: remember that this dialog 
is meant to scale up to 100s of printers such as in a large company. making 
it useful for home and SMB use it great, but doing so at the cost of 
enterprise use cases would be a step backwards.

 - "Clean the printer specific context menu by removing the general options 
and including the advanced ones into a Properties option."

yes, the general view options should probably go... but a list of which should 
stay is probably good. i see in the mockup that Test Printer is no longer in 
this menu, though that's not uncommon to use at all.

the entries that i'd suggest keeping are:

Enable/Disable Printer (you're right about Start/Stop imho)
Set as default ->
	For $USERNAME
	For all users on this computer
Configure Printer
Print Test Page
Advanced ->
	Export Driver
	IPP Report
	----
	<printer tools>
---
Remove Printer

slightly more entries, but keeps the utility more intact.

i like the show/hide details. we should have a standard widget for such 
things.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)

[Attachment #5 (application/pgp-signature)]

_______________________________________________
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability@kde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability


[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]