toolbar icons

David Nolden david.nolden.kdevelop at art-master.de
Sun Aug 9 10:46:41 UTC 2009


Am Sonntag 09 August 2009 12:21:40 schrieb Andreas Pakulat:
> > Removing the text from the toolbar icons may lead the user to look at the
> > menu first when wanting to achieve something, rather than already having
> > that randomly selected action in the toolbar.
>
> I don't think so. A user that doesn't see an action in the toolbar will go
> to the menu. However with no text its harder for the user to decide wether
> the action is in the toolbar or not, so he's more likely to always walk
> through the menu, rendering the toolbar pretty much useless.
>
> > Not a big tradeoff IMO, as the menu has to be used anyway, and the price
> > paid for that little convenience of seeing the text is a either
> > permanently reduced productivity (For example, the context-browser line
> > might not fit into the screen, which is more useful than _any_ toolbar
> > icon), or forcing the user to reconfigure KDevelop. And an app that
> > _needs_ to be reconfigured first before it can fully shine is not a good
> > app.
>
> Thats your personal opinion. I'm valueing first-time-users (not just
> developers using kdevelop for the first time, or even an IDE, but also
> people who just start off becoming developers) way way higher than the need
> for experienced users to do a right-click+select an option.
I don't see the difference between first-time and experienced users here. For 
both, there is no way around the menu. We should place the most-used actions 
in the toolbar to allow using them quickly by mouse, but the toolbar doesn't 
have to be the place from where you 'learn' how to use the application, or 
that allows to handle the application without grasping the menu.

> > Most of the shallow internet reviewers would probably not even notice
> > that there is something like a context-browser bar, if it wasn't visible
> > by default.
>
> Who said it wouldn't be visible by default? I never said it should be
> hidden. If it doesn't fit all in one line, it'll have a separate line by
> default.
Well, on a normal screen, it simply doesn't fit there together with all the 
icon+text (See screenshot I sent in this thread). Your monster screen does not 
count here, neither does mine.

So the options for the default UI are these:
1) No icon text + quickopen + context browser
2) Icon text + quickopen + context browser in another line
3) Icon text + quickopen, no context browser

And since I hate wasting space, I think 2) is not an option. We've done good 
work in maximizing the work area, and shouldn't eat that space up again. In 
3), we would hide an important feature from the user (See in what function you 
are, jump back/forward, etc.), so it is neither an option IMO.

Greetings, David





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