Splitting off into separate thread.
On Feb 1, 2007, at 3:48 PM, D John Anderson wrote:
4) As for the sidebar, we discussed this issue on the list over
the summer and agreed that coming up with a good design to deal
with an adjustable sidebar was beyond the scope of Preview. See
discussion here: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/Journal/
WhyTheSidebarIsFixedWidthForNow
I read the link, but didn't understand the details of the design
you're proposing. The main thing I'm confused about is this passage:
1. An alternate layout for the mini-calendar so that it doesn't
float in the middle of a sidebar that is much wider than the mini-
calendar itself.
2. A custom splitter tha won't make the divider between the
sidebar and the summary pane take up more pixels. (see Apple
Mail, iTunes and iPhoto as examples).
3. The ability to 'snap back' to the original width.
These are design issues that would need to be dealt with if we
introduced an adjustable width splitter between the sidebar and
summary pane. Could you elaborate on what in particular is
confusing for you?
I don't understand what the screen looks like as you move the
splitter between the sidebar and summary view, e.g. "an alternate
layout" doesn't make it clear what the alternate layout is. I think
a screen shot of the sidebar/minicalendar and summary view with
different positions of the splitter would help me understand the
proposal.
That's the work I'm trying to avoid doing before Preview :o)
Basically, if the sidebar gets wider, there are unsightly gaps of
white space to the right and/or left of the mini-calendar. Right now,
the sidebar is exactly the right width to fit the mini-calendar.
If on the other hand you're not making a concrete proposal, but
instead pointing out the "design issues that would need to be dealt
with", I was thinking about solving the issues by either scaling
the minicalendar to take up the extra space or tiling it to fill
the extra space.
Yes, I'm saying that I don't have time before Preview to explore /
evaluate visual designs to solve this problem. Given how hard it was
to make the minicalendar we have today look decent (thank you again
Jeffrey and Jed for your patience), from a visual design standpoint,
I don't have a lot of confidence that we can make it look right with
an adjustable-width sidebar for Preview.
Essentially if I were tracking my design bugs in bugzilla, I would
say I had Low confidence and SWAG: Medium. Just to reiterate, the
rationale for keeping the sidebar as is for Preview is:
+ We're not sure how dire it is to provide an adjustable-width
sidebar: We have yet to hear complaints from dogfooders about not
being able to fit collection names in the sidebar.
+ Given that the summary and detail panes are already too small, my
feeling has always been that the sidebar is going to be the last
place users want extra space.
Nevertheless, I understand your desire for an adjustable sidebar.
You've mentioned this before and I understand that you have this
concern. I too would like to see the sidebar be something users can
manipulate...along with a laundry list of other sidebar
enhancements ;o) We are on the lookout for similar feedback from
dogfooders, but haven't heard anything yet. We will continue to watch
for this. One thing I would like to understand better is: In what
situations will users want the sidebar to adjust automatically? In
what situations will users want to exert manual control?
In the meantime, it seems like concatenating the collection name is a
viable solution for solving the immediate issue at hand, making sure
the user can see the search results #s.
Mimi
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