On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Daniel Borgmann wrote: > Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 23:56:10 +0200 > From: Daniel Borgmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Alan Horkan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Usable workspaces for everyone (was: Desktops View in > Taskbar) > > On 9/6/06, Alan Horkan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Windows provided a power toy which gave basic workspace functionality and > > I don't think it is a bad thing to have as an optional extra but having > > them by default is another matter. Please read this again as it is really important to understand how users can be confused: > > I can all too easily see beginners accidentally switching to another > > workspace and wondering where all their programs went and not realise > > how to get them back. I also mentioned how frequently users get trapped by Insert/Overwrite as a clear example of how easily users can be confused and not necessarily notice the implications of their actions. Accidentally clicking on the workspace switcher and changing to another workspace is not something users will necessarily know how to reverse back out of without needing help. Perhaps some kind of suitable animation/decoration could make a future version much clearer, sure but I wasn't talking about future versions of workspaces which haven't been written yet. > We should think for our users, not take the easy way out and take > possibilities away from them, We should provide sensible defaults. Allowing users to "add to panel" does give plenty of possibilities irrespective of what is included on the panel by default. I'm just stating my opinion. Gnome has a feature enabled by default which Microsoft have chosen not to enable and it seems like neither will Apple. I long ago accepted that enough people like workspaces that it is good to have them but I do not accept it is a wise default for the reasons already outlined. It isn't like I am even pushing to have workspaces turned off by default, yet. If I were an admin deploying Gnome or otherwise providing technical support to Gnome users it would be high on my list of things to lockdown to prevent accidents. -- Alan _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
