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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KOffice2 interaction design issue
From:       "Will Hardy" <w.hardy () ugrad ! unimelb ! edu ! au>
Date:       2008-02-11 14:36:36
Message-ID: 69e30c440802110636r583b86d8v3c9d52be4fd9696f () mail ! gmail ! com
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Hi,

I would certainly like to help out, and perhaps organise some user
testing if you were looking at going down that road.

Re toolboxes:

Context-relevant toolboxes are cool, as long as you're certain the
user sees what they want. The problem is that it's not always
discoverable to have to change the context to be able to see the
function that they really wanted. I imagine it depends on the
application.

A toolbox interface, rather that toolbar interface sounds very much
like what iWork does. I think it is quick nice what iWork does: a
toolbox-like window that gives complete access to every formatting
function. This is also similar to gimp, but using less "tabs" (tool
buttons in gimp).

Of course, the problem with iWork is that it takes a while to be quick
enough to find exactly what you're looking for. Unlike a context-based
toolbar, that shows you what you most likely need at a given point in
time. And here we come to my suggestion:

A complete toolbox-like window, providing access to all formatting
functionality. The toolbox changes the displayed tab page in the
toolbox dynamically depending on the context. That way, the toolbox
behaves dynamically, but doesn't change in a way that would leave the
user helpless. The tab page is just changed, they can go back to the
old page if they need it.

Variants of this might allow each tab page to contain a few buttons,
or to show the same buttons on every tab page. The exact details would
need to be thought out and ideally tested. A cheap way of doing this
would of course be paper prototyping.

I'm currently living in Berlin, and I get the impression that there
are a few kde-loving usability people in Berlin who might like to come
together and test out some approaches on a couple of target users.

Cheers,

Will


2008/2/7, Boudewijn Rempt <boud@valdyas.org>:
> Hi,
>
> In KOffice2 we've chosen to use a different application layout compared to the
> Microsoft-inspired KOffice 1.x. No longer lots of toolbars and popups, but a
> toolbox and palette based layout, with the idea that this would help people
> see more of their document on the wide-screen systems prevalent these days.
>
> It has worked out reasonable well, but there are a couple of thorny problems,
> in particular with the layout of the toolbox and the interaction with the
> toolbox when the active element in a document changes.
>
> We would be really happy if someone with experience in interaction design and
> a fresh mind would help us pin down the problems and find a solution.
>


-- 
Will Hardy
m: +49 177 392 89 26
e: will@willhardy.com.au
w: http://www.willhardy.com.au
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