[Bug 386150] Re: Nautilus file browser toolbar is complicated, redundant, and ugly

[SY]

The launchpad-style breadcrumbs are certainly an improvement, but I
personally feel that the more textual style for breadcrumbs (element 
element  element) would be better. Not only does KDE use this style,
but so does Windows Vista, and the majority of web sites that include
breadcrumb navigation. This style would be more familiar to users. In
any case, the current breadcrumb style is very undesirable, and should
be fixed as some point in the future.

The home button is also redundant, and arguably a waste of space, as
there is a link to Home both in the Places left sidebar and in the Go
menu. Also, a reload/stop button is pretty much a necessity to work with
storage with slow data rates and high latencies (network disks, etc.).

Although I do not necessarily agree with the existence of a global
setting for showing text with toolbar items, ignoring this global
setting in a program that forms such a central and high-profile part of
Gnome, such as Nautilus, would be dangerous and confusing to users.

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[Bug 386150] Re: Nautilus file browser toolbar is complicated, redundant, and ugly

[SY]

This is the only downside I can think of to this style of breadcrumbs
versus the current style. That being said, as long as a hover state is
provided for the breadcrumb elements, I think it would be fairly
apparent that the elements are clickable. Overall, I think it would be a
win for usability to use a more common and logical style.

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[Bug 386150] Re: Nautilus file browser toolbar is complicated, redundant, and ugly

[SY]

ShawnJGoff makes a good point that standard buttons are really not the
appropriate widget for the breadcrumbs. Not only are they an illogical
choice, they also look very unattractive. Instead, it would be
preferable if the breadcrumbs were made up of clickable text elements in
the following format: element  element  element. KDE's Dolphin
implements breadcrumbs in exactly this way, as you can see in this
screenshot of Dolphin with Ubuntu's GTK style: http://blog.rom1v.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/06/dolphin-gnome.png

Using this style of breadcrumbs would allow the vertical space required
for the breadcrumbs to be reduced, and probably the horizontal space as
well. The breadcrumbs could even be moved out of the toolbar and into a
thin strip at the top of the content area, as in the dolphin screenshot,
freeing up space in the toolbar, and allowing it to be reduced to one
row. This would allow the places sidebar to extend further vertically
upward.

Additionally, I agree the combining the stop and reload buttons into one
would be a step in the right direction. This way, the stop button would
only appear when it has a purpose (during long loads of network
resources), and it would be substantially less confusing to users.

Customizable toolbars of the sort that Firefox and Safari have (drag and
drop) would also be a nice feature.

The main characteristic that has traditionally distinguished Gnome is a
commitment to usability. This commitment has served Gnome well over the
years, contributing to its current popularity among Linux/Unix
environments. It is important that we not stop innovating for the sake
of usability, and that we not become bound by tradition, and simply
allow Gnome to stagnate. There are certainly many things that can be
improved about the current Nautilus, and indeed the rest of Gnome, and
these changes should not be dismissed out of hand just because they
involve breaking with convention.

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Nautilus file browser toolbar is complicated, redundant, and ugly
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/386150
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