"new activity" choices

[todd rme]

On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 7:25 AM, Chani <chanika at gmail.com> wrote:

> when you click the "new activity" button, you currently see about five
> different plugins, plus a template (sooon to be many templates) and a clone
> option.
>
> I watched a user trying the activity UI at opensuse, and he had no idea
> what
> option to choose. I realised that's quite understandable - how would he
> know
> that the default plugin is called "Desktop" and not "Grouping Desktop" or
> "Grid Desktop"? the options are just plain overwhelming, and with templates
> that's likely to get worse.
>
> so, how can we improve that dialog? I want it to suggest the best choice
> for
> newbies without overwhelming them, but still offer the alternatives that
> they
> can try out when they're ready.
>
> my first thought is, banish templates and plugins to their own submenus.
> this
> will probably help with the initial drowning-in-choices problem, but it's
> not
> enough on its own.
> having the clone option and two submenus suggests choosing to clone - which
> isn't half bad. I think that our default "desktop" plugin should be
> promoted
> up there too - it's one we know works, and is probably what the user wants.
> and they can always change the plugin in settings anyways.
> either that, or we create a default template, like the "default panel", and
> promote that one to be in the root menu.
>
> actually, since they can change the plugin in settings, does it make
> *sense*
> to also offer that option at activity creation time? it's a nice shortcut
> if
> you have multiple screen and want them all to use a particular plugin.
> other
> than that, it's just one more choice to make when what you're likely
> thinking
> is "I need to send this document off to its own activity so I can deal with
> it
> later, who gives a fuck about widgets?" ;)
>
> so... what did I end up suggesting here?
> -remove the choice of plugins, default to "desktop"
> -put one "empty desktop" option in the root menu
> -put templates in a sub-menu (if there's >1 of course)
> and perhaps also:
> -put one good template in the root menu.
>
> thoughts? :)
>
>
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.

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.

These two ideas are not mutually exclusive, either.

-Todd
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