Re: The HIG and Open a Copy

sum1_lists@yahoo.com wrote:

>
> Ryan Pavlik wrote:
>
>>
>> Alan Horkan wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005, Robert Staudinger wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 18:34:03 +0100
>>>> From: Robert Staudinger <robsta@stereolyzer.net>
>>>> To: Alan Horkan <horkana@maths.tcd.ie>
>>>> Cc: AbiWord Developer Mailing List <abiword-dev@abisource.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: The HIG and Open a Copy
>>>>
>>>> Am Montag, den 21.02.2005, 17:05 +0000 schrieb Alan Horkan:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Just because something is not in the Gnome Human Interface
>>>>> Guidelines does
>>>>> not mean it shouldn't be in Abiword. Open a Copy may not be a
>>>>> heavily
>>>>> used feature but it being absent from the HIG is not reason enough
>>>>> on its
>>>>> own to remove it.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I must admit my initial argumentation only referring to the HIG was
>>>> probably not very convincing.
>>>> I think that "Open a Copy" is not needed because
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> + It's not used very frequently. (Use cases?)
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I don't disagree with this, but as the old 80/20 rule suggests most
>>> people only use about 20 percent of the features.
>>>
>>> If there was an easy way for non programmers to reveal this
>>> functionality
>>> I wouldn't have any qualms about turning it off by default.
>>>
>
> I don't think "it's not used very frequently" is a good argument to
> remove a function that can't be replicated in the same amount of steps.
> Also, I don't think one person can realistically gauge how the thousands
> of AbiWord users actually use the program.
>
> Quite frankly, the more I use the new menus, the more I dislike them. I
> used to be able to toggle spellchecking on and off with one click, but
> have to go through the preferences dialog now (this is a pain for
> documents where many of the words are "int," "mv," "cp," etc.). I know
> the goal of these changes was simplicity, but I don't think removing
> menu functions achieves this. At this point, I /really/ would like to
> see the changes reverted until conclusive discussion has ended.

It seems to me that here we are taking "city on a hill" supposed UI
friendliness and compliance with one platform HIG over careful, reasoned
decision making, resulting in decreased functionality (Remove
Header/Footer in the menu, single menu to turn on/off spelling, etc)
available to the users. Without some sort of "big brother" usage
monitoring system on AbiWord, any speculation about more commonly used
or less used functions is simply blind speculation. I feel that I
usually know how people will use programs, but I am continually amazed
at the number of different ways people find to solve their problems when
using a program. A way that seems logical and obvious to you or I may
be the least likely way another person performs the action. There are
probably more pressing UI issues than the arrangement of menus, as well,
(see 7400 metabug, etc) that will help all users no matter how they use
the program, as opposed to confusing those who were used to one way.

This is all my untrained opinion, however, please take it with a grain
of salt.

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
--
"Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses."  --Confucius