[Thunar-dev] hello, user interface design, and spatial thoughts

[David Feldman]

First to introduce myself: My name is Dave. I'm a user interface  
designer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. I'm  
writing for a few reasons.

I'm excited to see a new project underway to create a good file  
manager for Xfce. I've been really impressed with Xfce as an  
attractive, to-the-point, easy-to-use, and most importantly fast  
alternative to GNOME and KDE. I've been able to resurrect my  
girlfriend's old laptop with it in a way that KDE and GNOME don't  
permit. While I think xffm is intriguing, I don't really see it as a  
great complement to Xfce for non-technical users, and indeed I've  
used Nautilus (in Browser mode) as the file manager on the  
aforementioned laptop.

Anyway, your Jobs page says you need user interface design help. I  
can't promise that I have a huge amount of time but I would like to  
help. I can provide usability critiques and evaluations, and do  
design and redesign mockups. If you're curious about my  
qualifications check out my web site at http://InterfaceThis.com.

Lastly, I wanted to say something about the spatial/navigational  
question. Ever since I encountered the spatial metaphor and  
subsequent debate I've been worried because it seems like everyone is  
taking a whole lot of things for granted that I don't think are  
proven. As you point out on your page, many people think the spatial  
way is easier to use - yet I haven't really seen conclusive evidence  
of that, and I think there are some real usability drawbacks to it as  
well. I've been thinking about this for a few months now and have  
compiled my thoughts in an article on my Web site:
http://interfacethis.com/pub/index.php?itemid=56

I'd be curious what others think.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you and hope I can become part  
of the community.

Dave Feldman

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David A. Feldman
User Interface Designer
http://InterfaceThis.com