I hope this mail does not come across as too harsh. I
really love OOo's new 2.0 interface. *But*
I think there is one *new* type of usability problem
with OOo 2.0 that did not exist before (or at least
it was not that bad): Dancing Tabs.
I think the metaphor of "Tabs" comes straight from old-fashioned
filing cabinets where these small metal grips would be used to
find cards by letter etc. You never had a problem getting hold
of tabs, because they stayed in place.
In principle this is the way tabs should work. When you "page"
trough them, only one is "on top", but the tabs themselves never
should change their position.
Now look at the way the main tabs in Impress behave.
Klick through all of them three times in sequence:
Normal-Outline-Notes-Handout-Slide Sorter-Normal-Outline-Notes-
Handout-Slide Sorter-Normal-Outline-Notes-Handout-Slide Sorter
Are you dizzy after the third time? I am. It takes a lot
of concentration.
Now try the same thing in Firefox or any other application
with tabs staying in place. What a difference. I really do think
moving tabs breaks the metaphor. IMHO it is just as evil as
moving Icons in a file manager without user intervention.
A similar problem occurs when additional toolbars are inserted
dynamically in Word Processor, when the document is shifted down
(or up again when they are removed). I think this is very disconcerting
to the user. Of course you can always undock toolbars, and that is
what I do, but nevertheless, it feels very wrong until you undock them.
/ralph
--
Rettet die Wale und stÃrzt das System, und trennt euren MÃll,
denn viel Mist ist nicht schÃn!
Gustav, "Rettet die Wale"
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