[Xfce-bugs] [Bug 15005] file properties, general tab, volume and usage lines need clarity

[bugzilla-daemon at xfce.org]

https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15005

swordplay at gmail.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Priority|Medium                      |Low
           Severity|normal                      |trivial

--- Comment #1 from swordplay at gmail.com ---
File Properties dialog, General tab: This has some unnecessary cognitive load
to understand, and should be made more explicit.

I will use a recent example.

Examining a folder that is the mount point of a drive by right-clicking on
"Properties...", I looked for some information -- how much of this drive is
being used?

Here are the final three lines of the General tab of my dialog:

Size: 12499 items, totalling 1.0 TB (1,038,238,561,455 bytes)
Volume: [usb icon] katarina
Usage: 1.8 TB of 3.0 TB free (38% used)

The final line is labeled "Usage:" and is immediately followed by a number (in
my case "1.8 TB") but this number does not represent the "used" it instead
represents the "unused". Then there is another number which is also not the
amount "used", but the amount "available".  Then, finally, a percentage used,
but not the amount.

Now, perhaps the word "usage" here has been meant in the more general sense of
an overall perspective, not in the specific sense of the amount actually in
use. But it's confusing, especially as the next part of the phrase is used to
explain this inversion of expected meaning, thus requiring the reader to
subtract in their head -- then compare the ratio of the derived number to the
explicitly-stated amounts "used" or "available" to determine that the
percentage that follows seems correct in order to remove most doubt.

I am being slightly hyperbolic, but I do indeed have to do those mental
gymnastics because of the confusion of explicit meaning engendered every time.

It's unnecessary mental work; I find it distracting. I think the computer
should do this thinking for me. :)

Could the final two lines of the dialog tab read something like this format?
-->

Volume: [icon] volume-name volume-size
Capacity: ##% used (amount)  |  ##% remaining (amount)

In my case above, this would be:

Size: 12499 items, totalling 1.0 TB (1,038,238,561,455 bytes)
Volume: [usb icon] katarina  |  3.0 TB
Capacity: 38% used (1.2 TB)  |  62% free (1.8 TB)

I feel that this is more explicit and more organized.

1)  The volume's available space should be with the volume description,
particularly for when you are searching for that specific info, but in this
case because it shouldn't be cluttering up the info I actually am looking for.

2) The verbiage on the final line should be made super-clear since I think
that's one of the biggest factors of consideration when dealing with volumes at
this level of inquiry. 

3) The word "Capacity" avoids any initial assumptions of meaning that then have
to be undone.

4) The vertical lines " | " could be any sort of appropriate visual separation,
even just a tab or a few extra spaces.

Aloha!

PS: on "Size" line, the word "totalling" should be spelled "totaling" -- just a
typo in the dialog.

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