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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Usability Topics
From:       Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar () autistici ! org>
Date:       2010-08-21 18:08:32
Message-ID: 201008212008.33217.colomar () autistici ! org
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Hi all,
now that I was welcomed again warmly, I am eager to start working with you.

First of all, we need to identify the topics/issues we will work on. If there 
are some which you have already identified but not found a solution for yet, 
please tell me about them and who will be the ideal people to discuss them 
with.

Otherwise, here are two rather general topics Inge and me have identified in 
Essen:

1. The "Jumping interface". 
This behavior is caused by the fact that some dockers are automatically shown 
or hidden based on the currently selected tool / shape. Now if these dockers 
are positioned above others that are always visible, the latter "jump" up and 
down in the right pane, causing confusion for the user. We have to find ways 
to automatically show/hide those dockers while minimizing the amount of 
overall changes in the UI.

2. Dockers vs. toolbars vs. dialogs.
Currently, for example in KWord, some options like font settings can be found 
both in dockers and in (optional) toolbars. On the other hand, Styles, which 
are in the same category from the user's perspective, cannot be changed using 
a toolbar. 
Generally, the concept of toolbars should actually become obsolete with the 
introduction of dockers that can be positioned freely. Otherwise users have 
different methods for changing an aspect of their document which behave 
differently: The Tool Options docker (which among other things contains font 
and paragraph format options when the text tool is selected) is shown or 
hidden depending on the selected tool whereas the corresponding toolbar is 
activated or deactivated. Plus, users have to find out for themselves which 
options are available via toolbars or dockers or both. 
In KSpread, for example, certain cell format options can only be changed in 
yet another way: A dialog. This situation makes it pretty hard for the user to 
know where to change what.

My idea would be to move every setting into either the menu or dockers and 
trying to optimize their layout so that users can use them like toolbars if 
they want to and organize options currently only shown in dialogs in a way 
that allows them to be placed in dockers as well.

Of course I am aware that my suggestions will have further implications and 
raise problems, and therefore will need to be discussed in detail. But this is 
how I generally work: Make suggestions that in my opinion are easiest for the 
user and than find a practical solution together with developers.

I hope we can tackle the issues you will come up with and the ones I have 
identified.

Regards,
Thomas
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