discuss: consistency in KDE GUI
subbukk
subbukk at gmail.com
Fri Dec 22 07:12:59 CET 2006
Hi all,
KDE is a nice way for people to get introduced to computing for the first
time. However, I noticed a pattern of confusion in beginners. KDE is
designed around objects and operations. Yet, this design is not
consistently surfaced in application interfaces and the dissonance is
confusing to beginners.
Take Konqueror for instance. Its menu bar contains:
Location Edit View Bookmarks Tools Settings Help
The intuitive way to stop konqueror would be:
Konqueror stop/exit/quit
But there is no "Konqueror" button in the menubar. Some operations under
Location button like New Window, New Tab, apply to Konqueror the program
and not to Location. Similarly, the Settings button also lists commands
that are handled by the program. Perhaps, we should begin the menu
with "Konqueror" and move Settings under this. Atleast, it will help
build the brand :-).
The Edit button is a verb and not a "thing". It is confusing because
Konqueror cannot edit a webpage. The ops - cut, copy, paste, find,
select - applies to text selections in a web page. When dealing with
folders, it shows "copy files", "move files" etc.
View/Bookmark/Tools/Help buttons are easy to understand and operate.
Kio slaves are so useful, it is a pity that they are not exposed directly
in the menubar. They could be surfaced through Tools (e.g. Tools|Locate
or Tools:Google") or have a separate button "Kio".
Konqueror is just a sample. Other apps like KMail are much worse. Though,
KMail doesnt deal with files, its menubar starts with "File"!
Should KDE apps be designed to be consistent with the underlying object
models? Should KDE core libs be engineered to encourage (or enforce) this
consistency? For instance, should "menubar" be restricted to "things"
while "toolbar" limited to actions?
Happy Holidays,
K. K. Subbu
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