Fw: Re: UI bugs on your preference panels

[Jasper Huijsmans]

Forwarding. I don't think this got through from Eugenia.

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 11:24:38 -0700
From: "Eugenia Loli-Queru" <eloli at hotmail.com>
To: "Jasper Huijsmans" <jasper at moongroup.com>
Cc: "Olivier Fourdan" <fourdan at xfce.org>, <xfce4-dev at moongroup.com>
Subject: Re: UI bugs on your preference panels


Quick look reveal the following:

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/settings_manager.png

I would advocate to create these small windows large enough to not need
scrollbars by default.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/decoration_style.png

Rename "Window Style" as "Decorator".
Rename Font Select as Font Selection or Select a Font
Lose the "Text alighnment inside title bar". The frame header should be
clear enough.
I would also advocate to follow the Gnome HIG in this panel and while
keep the Decorator frame box, use the bold header style without a box
for the font, alightnment and layout.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/keyboard_and_focus.png

Same thing about the HIG here for the right hand boxes.
I don't like that  you have keyboard together with window focus. It
doesn't make sense... Is that keyboard shown there _only_ for the window
manager shortcuts or for the whole XFCE/desktop? If it is only for the
window manager, it could make sense to put it under the Advanced tab. If
it is for the whole desktop thing, then it has absolutely no place in
there. Additionally, you have a huge vertical text list view for the
keyboard Shortcut, but you have no way to install a new .keys file. If
you can't offer such service at the moment, I would advise to make that
white box smaller and underneath it add some text telling people in
which directory they should place their own .keys. The way it is
presented today there, it is just black magic that noone knows what this
thing is and where to find it.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/misc_wm_prefs.png

Again, following the Gnome HIG here which helps to not have boxed
windows, would be best.
Other than that, well done for this one. :)

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/workspace_margins.png

This is not very clear.. Does this mean that you can't move the window
outside your visible desktop? And if this can happen with the value 0,
which value should I put there in order to not activate that feature? It
is just not clear..
The box around the monitor is not needed at all.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/keyboard_settings.png

HIG for the right boxes.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/mouse_settings.png

On the right hand boxes, rename the "drag and drop" to "drag and drop
threshold" and "Double click" to "Double click speed" and lose the extra
words. There is no need for nested logic here.

>
http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/user_interface_settings.png

Rename Font to Font Selection and Toolbar to Toolbar Style and lose both
the boxes and the extra words. Additionally, you don't have the two
widgets on the right aligned. Lose the box for the "Select theme" as
well. Just include a header, no need for boxes.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/xfdesktop-background.png

This panel is badly designed usability-wise. You have that checkbox
there that says "use color only" which creates the usability confusion.
You will have to completely lose the boxes, move the image stuff above,
move the "background color" down, and then include the "Use color only".
And when you click that, disable the image widgets.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/xfdesktop-list.png

Good.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/xfdesktop-workspace.png

Not happy about this at all.
You have _three_ different windows for workspaces, and they are all
scattered on _different_ preference panels! :(
Move the "Wrap workspaces" from here
http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/misc_wm_prefs.png to
the workspace own preference panel (and move the keyboard stuff in its
place) and move this
http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/workspace_margins.png
to the workspace pref panel as well. You have scattered information all
over the place about the same thing!
Additionally, on this
http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/xfdesktop-workspace.png
you should have a different color behind the numbers 1,2,3,4, to
differentiate and show that it is not part of the naming the user
decides. Also, lose the boxes again and move the "Click on a workspace
name to edit it" as the header of the list view (without boxes).

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/panel-settings.png

I am not sure what "panel layer" is. The rest is ok

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/launcher-properties.png

Move the icon/tooltip completely at the bottom, move the menu stuff up,
and put the icon preview on the right of the icon and tooltip stuff. I
believe it makes more sense this way, because the way it is now it is
like the icon is dependant from all the widgets and not just the icon
ones. I don't like the "position" way, but I understand that it is
easier to program it this way. Drag and drop on a previewed panel would
be best, but this is lot of work..

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/mailcheck-properties.png
> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/menuitem-properties.png
> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/nooptions-properties.png
>
http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/systembuttons-properties.png

This specific panel has its text align on the right while all the other
similar panels have their text align on the left.

> http://members.home.nl/xfce4/documentation/images/clock-properties.png

For all the above you might want to along the Position "1" with the
widgets underneath it...

>
> I'm sure you'll be able to find many problems with them. I can't
> promiss I'll be able to fix everything, but I will do what I can.

Thanks. :)

Eugenia