<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 7:25 AM, Chani <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chanika@gmail.com">chanika@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
when you click the "new activity" button, you currently see about five<br>
different plugins, plus a template (sooon to be many templates) and a clone<br>
option.<br>
<br>
I watched a user trying the activity UI at opensuse, and he had no idea what<br>
option to choose. I realised that's quite understandable - how would he know<br>
that the default plugin is called "Desktop" and not "Grouping Desktop" or<br>
"Grid Desktop"? the options are just plain overwhelming, and with templates<br>
that's likely to get worse.<br>
<br>
so, how can we improve that dialog? I want it to suggest the best choice for<br>
newbies without overwhelming them, but still offer the alternatives that they<br>
can try out when they're ready.<br>
<br>
my first thought is, banish templates and plugins to their own submenus. this<br>
will probably help with the initial drowning-in-choices problem, but it's not<br>
enough on its own.<br>
having the clone option and two submenus suggests choosing to clone - which<br>
isn't half bad. I think that our default "desktop" plugin should be promoted<br>
up there too - it's one we know works, and is probably what the user wants.<br>
and they can always change the plugin in settings anyways.<br>
either that, or we create a default template, like the "default panel", and<br>
promote that one to be in the root menu.<br>
<br>
actually, since they can change the plugin in settings, does it make *sense*<br>
to also offer that option at activity creation time? it's a nice shortcut if<br>
you have multiple screen and want them all to use a particular plugin. other<br>
than that, it's just one more choice to make when what you're likely thinking<br>
is "I need to send this document off to its own activity so I can deal with it<br>
later, who gives a fuck about widgets?" ;)<br>
<br>
so... what did I end up suggesting here?<br>
-remove the choice of plugins, default to "desktop"<br>
-put one "empty desktop" option in the root menu<br>
-put templates in a sub-menu (if there's >1 of course)<br>
and perhaps also:<br>
-put one good template in the root menu.<br>
<br>
thoughts? :)<br>
<br></blockquote></div><br>What about having a preview of what you would get with each containment? Not a live preview, just an example screenshot designed specifically to highlight what is unique about each containment type. I know this wouldn't work as well for something like the grouping desktop, which just adds a new containment type to the existing desktop (which makes me wonder why it is a separate containment at all, but that is another issue). But for the main containment types it should provide some guidance to users. <br>
<br>An alternative (or supplement) would be a "Help Me Choose" wizard. This would have a screenshot or very short clip (like the instructional videos on userbase) along with a brief explanation about what the point of each containment is. This would slow down adding the first containment, but this would be opt-in (users would have to click a "Help me choose..." menu item) and should only need to be done a couple of times before the user gets a feel for the containments.<br>
<br>These two ideas are not mutually exclusive, either.<br><br>-Todd<br>