Hi Jerome, What do you feel are the major outstanding issues?
From what I can see, the important functionality is pretty-much there, but I do have serious concerns about the layout of the user interface. For Thaw to be successful, it is essential that it not only provide the necessary functionality, but that this functionality is provided in a user friendly and intuitive way. I think you have made some good improvements with this, but there is still work to do. Let me try to summarize my main concerns, please don't think I am being over-critical here, if I sound abrupt it is just because I'm trying to be efficient: 1) Tabs really don't feel like the right way to expose the functionality to add files to the upload/download queues. I think Fuqid gets this right by having pop-up dialogs which allow the user to enter the information they need, rather than permanently present user interface elements under different tabs. The fact that the user interface elements under the "Insertion" and "Download" tabs struggle to fill the space available to them is a symptom of this. My recommendation: * Get rid of the tabs, all of Thaw's functionality should be exposed through a single dialog with additional pop-up dialogs to acquire necessary user input as necessary (ie. to add files to the insertions and downloads queues). 2) Too much information is provided, cluttering the UI and potentially confusing users. I get the sense that the current UI was designed "from FCP back" rather than "from the user forward". In other words, rather than thinking about the user's needs for specific operations, and then figuring out how to meet them with FCP, the UI was designed by looking at what FCP offered, and then figuring out how to present this in the UI. I think almost all of the information in the status section is unnecessary, to go through each item: File: this is provided in the insertion and download listbox Size: this too Progress: this too Status: this too Key: Most users really don't need or want to see the key - since it is mostly just a collection of random characters. The user probably will want to copy the key to the clipboard, and this operation could be provided by right-clicking on the file in the Downloads or Insertions listbox and selecting "Copy key". Local path: The term "local path" will mean nothing to most users, but we could provide a "View in Explorer" or "View in Finder" right- click option for the user to open the file in their operating system's file-system browser (assuming Java can do this). Priority: Meaningless to most users Try: could be presented in "Status" column of ListBox Identifier: What does this mean? Isn't it the same as the filename? Global queue: An internal implementation issue, irrelevant to most users I would therefore remove the status panel altogether, relying on the Downloads and Insertions listboxes to provide necessary file information, and making additional options available under a right- click menu where necessary. This will bring Thaw closer to a Fuqid like interface, and I don't think that is a bad thing, I think Fuqid got a lot of things right, and we shouldn't be afraid to emulate it where appropriate. I hope that feedback is useful, Ian. Ian Clarke: Co-Founder & Chief Scientist Revver, Inc. phone: 323.871.2828 | personal blog - http://locut.us/blog -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://emu.freenetproject.org/pipermail/thaw/attachments/20060722/6ad3f6f6/attachment.html>
