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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: My opinions about KDE-menu usability
From:       Jim Conner <jconner83 () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2001-08-05 7:17:12
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Very good points.  I put out my opinions and observations for others to 
comment on here.  If there is a flaw in my logic, I hope someone points it 
out.  This is the only way usability of kde is going to get better.  There 
are people that would find Redmond Linux's way of doing things very easy to 
understand, but as they learned more, very hard to modify/change.  There are 
those that wouldn't want to have to use their way of doing things if you put 
a gun to their head.  Looking at the way different menuing developers do 
things such as Redmond Linux, Gnome, MS, Mac, and others, is a good way to 
discuss what works and what doesn't.  Most of these have their good and bad 
points and that all depends on who you're target audience is.  I have asked 
the maintainer if he will be offering the 'standard' kde menu with his distro 
at some future time.  He replied that it was on the todo list for a future 
build.
I think the KDE Menu needs quite a bit of work as pointed out in a different 
thread.  If we look at what is out there and what works and what doesn't and 
how, we can develop a better KMenu by pulling in all the good points from 
each.

Jim

On Saturday August 04, 2001 12:22 pm, Greg Turpin wrote:
<snip>
> I think this is a mistake.  If a user starts in one mode - they will never
> graduate to the next.  That's just usability common sense.
>
> We (as KDE developers) will always be using the advanced mode.  Our
> users will be using a different mode (and hence, a different layout).
> Now - imagine trying to help a newbie out with a certain task in the
> KMenu.  There are two ways to get to the program.  Which one do you
> tell them?  Telling them both will get very annoying very quickly.
>
> This is just BAD usability.  All of the books I've read on the subject say
> that dual-mode interfaces should be avoided at all cost.
>
> The Redmond Linux menu setup is not very usable.  In a menu, you have
> items, not sentences.  I don't want to read a book.  I just want to
> launch a web-browser.  What's so complicated with going to "Internet"
> and then "Konqueror Web Browser".
>
> Once the users cross the bridge that allows them to understand the layout
> of the menu - we've won.
>
> Greg

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