[Pan-users] Re: User feedback wanted: a new task pane layout

[Duncan]

Darren Albers <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Fri, 19 Jan 2007
15:53:23 -0500:

> Charles Kerr wrote:
>> As per http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=387941, I'm trying out
>> a minor task pane layout change and would like to get user feedback...
>>
>> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=80718 <-- current layout
>> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=80727 <-- proposed layout
>>
>> I tried opening both screenshots in tabs in my browser window and
>> flipping back and forth between them for comparison.  I like the buttons
>> arrangements better in the new version, but on the other hand they eat
>> up some of the task list's horizontal space.
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>> Charles
>>
>>
> I personally like the current layout, however adding the move tasks button
> to the side seems to make more UI sense since they line up in the same
> "flow" as the tasks themselves
> 
> Not to start a KDE vs Gnome flamewar but are you following the Gnome HIG? 
> If so having buttons on the side like that "feels" very KDE'ish.

I immediately liked the proposed new layout. =8^) Perhaps your observation
is why, as I run KDE. =8^)  (They just have a crap for a news client, is
all. =8^( )

As for space, the icons used have fairly universal meanings, and arranging
them vertically would make the meaning even more intuitive, so how about
doing what the main window toolbar already does, use tooltips to display
the function on hover?  In the case of the main window toolbar, there's
really not a choice if one wants to stay within 800 px wide, but it hasn't
mattered so much for the task window.  If the icons are put vertically,
the horizontal space taken by the text labels matters far more than in the
current arrangement, but at the same time, it's much more intuitive, so
the text labels aren't needed as much.  Tooltipping the labels would seem
to be the logical solution, therefore, particularly since precedent is
already set with the main window toolbar.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman