Subject: RE: Some random thoughts on usability(OT)
From: Guy (guya1@bezeqint.net)
Date: Fri Aug 11 2000 - 03:31:31 CDT
Hi.
i had a problem with the abiword that i use for some time now.
i went to the abisuite home page and sent a mail regarding hte problem
to the e-mail i found there. a rapid reply said to join this mailing list
and ask the questions here.
so i did. but now. more then a week after. i didn't get any question.
now, what kind of support list is this ?
you know i hate to do it but i can use more then 'alot' of other
word proccesors that there are in the www.
so, please if there is a list for 'how to use' the abi word and not 'how to
program'
it i will be happy if you reffer me to it. if there is none. so i get that
you don't need any more
users, and i will quietly leave.
thank you for your time.
Guy
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-abiword-dev@abisource.com
[mailto:owner-abiword-dev@abisource.com]On Behalf Of Tim LaDuca
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 8:17 AM
To: Michael D. Crawford; abiword-dev@abisource.com
Subject: Re: Some random thoughts on usability(OT)
"Michael D. Crawford" wrote:
>
> I respectfully disagree.
>
> I don't find toolbars useful at all; I like menus. My wife, when I'm
> using a program in front of her, will tell me which toolbar button to
> press to do some operation, but I always go straight to the menu and
> select the menu item.
>
> The most significant reason for this is that the natural language text
> of the menu item is a positive confirmation that the command you're
> about to operate is the one you really want. The little icons have no
> such association for me. For me, little pictures are not verbs.
I too would hate to see the menu bar just completely dissappear. To
refine things a little bit, there needs to be a re-conception if the
menu-bar tool-bar relationship. There are a lot of people like you.
Menu's are another natural was of doing things for *some* people. People
that are used to it, and people that like that kind of logic. And a lot
of people are "menu" people. Non-computer types tend to be "button"
people, and only learn a few basic commands in the menu(like File ->
Open). Of course theirs people like me, using menu's and buttons kind of
at random. The re-conception I'm talking about is allowing all the
functionality that menu's offer via graphic buttons. A button does not
have to correspond to a single action like Copy, Cut, or Bold. A button
can bring up a screen that functions just like a menu, where you pick a
command and the screen goes away. A button can bring up a dialog, a
button can do anything a menu can do, and give a graphical conceptual
representation to boot. Currently toolbar buttons are limited to a
subset of functionality that the menus are capable of. A new user
shouldn't have to learn both.
> Another problem with toolbars is that there is not a lot of
> standardization for the icons. Even though some common operations may
> have frequently repeated icons in different programs, each program will
> usually draw the icon art in a slightly different way, in part to make
> it consistent with the internal look of the program, and in part to
> avoid violating the copyright of some other program they may have gotten
> the idea for the icon from.
This is where Free Software saves the day!
> While someone may claim you stole his art for a little floppy disk icon,
> no one will claim you stole the word "Save" from his program.
>
> For me, toolbars are just wasted space and I'd really like to at least
> have the option to note have them appear in a document at all, so I can
> have more screen real-estate for useful visible document content.
>
> This is especially important if, like me, you're the kind of user who
> leaves a lot of windows open on the screen and flips between windows
> frequently. Having the toolbar art change so much is really
> distressing. The most important thing to me is that the result of my UI
> input be predictable in its result, and I don't have the feeling that
> that's the case if I try to use toolbars.
I can't blame ya! It would also be a tragedy if the "computer types" had
to do things the way of the "non-computer types". And I don't see why
both can't co-exist peacefully. I just think right now the "tragedy" is
for the non-computer types.
(As a side note, at a prior job I spent much time showing realtors how
to use a Windows program, and I can't overstate how hard a computer can
be to use for people not like us!)
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