On Mar 5, 2009, at 6:45 AM, Mattias Konradsson wrote:
Toolbars: Why clutter the screen with features might or might not
be useful
for you, if the options are context-based they are better accessed
through a
context-menu of the entity in question
I can't say I agree with this one. Toolbars not only serve as access
to the tools, but may provide status as well. For example, when I'm
working in Photoshop, I have my cursor set to the cross hair for
perfect accuracy. The only way for me to check which tool I have
selected, then, is to look at the toolbar or use it to see what
happens. Furthermore, even as an expert user, there are some tools and
tool features that I use less often. A toolbar provides
discoverability, reminding me of the presence of such tools. If you
rely on contextual menus for all functionality, it is completely
hidden. There is much to be said for the phrase "a place for
everything and everything in its place".
Scrollbars: Don't we all use mousewheels nowadays? The scrollbar
does have
a function in indicating position in current view but maybe that
could be
shown more discretly in some other way.
Mousewheels can be horribly inefficient in long documents, zoomed-in
views, and large work areas.
The desktop: I never understood people why fuzz about their
desktop, it's
never visible! :) Organizing files on a desktop is generally a bad
idea and
launching stuff from the desktop also has better solutions.
And why should you have any desktop space in your office? All you
really need is a support for your keyboard and a cup holder. The
desktop is convenient. I don't use it to organize files, but I do use
it as a place to throw something temporarily. And personally, I still
prefer to have all of my discs and drives mount there. Besides,
something has to be at the bottom of the stack. It may as well be
useful.
The windows taskbar/The Dock: Quicklaunch/launch options are better
replaced by things like quicksilver/launchy. Taskswitching is better
done
through expose or something similar rather than the dock/taskbar.
The only
useful thing remaining is some state information like clock, network
state
etc.
The dock shows me quickly what applications are currently running on
my system. It provides status information, such as the number of new
email messages waiting in my inbox. Along with spring-loaded folders,
It allows me to drag a file into a deeply nested area of my system, or
onto the application I want to open it with, or the droplet I want to
process it with. It provides quick access to certain functions in an
application without switching to that application. And, it is
sometimes quicker for me to switch to an application in a different
space by clicking on it in the dock.
Best,
Jack
Jack L. Moffett
Interaction Designer
inmedius
412.459.0310 x219
http://www.inmedius.com
Questions about whether design
is necessary or affordable
are quite beside the point:
design is inevitable.
The alternative to good design
is bad design, not no design at all.
- Douglas Martin
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