Hi, I am just test driving Ubuntu 11.10 beta 1. This is my first time using Unity heavily, so I hope to have fresh pair of eyeballs here. I also have some background in usability, so I hope I could document my little frustrating story trying find settings in 11.10 for the first time.
I found it very difficult to find (for the first time) and access (attempt n > 1) for all application and system preferences All application path is not obvious in Dash ----------------------------------------------------------- I think I can divide the proble to parts * Dash icon is unclear (users will learn this) * Click Dash icon does not instantly bring up all applications but you still have to "enable" it by clicking the label * Filtering etc. on "All applications" view is currently very confusing. Either filter bar should be open by default or should not take permanent space (it could be a tick box pop-up) * Also for subsequest accesses you need to again click "all apps icon" and again "installed apps" and again "turn on filtering pane" etc. many many clicks I would suggest to add a separate view in Dash just for all applications + filters. No recently used, no "download more". There is plenty of space in Dash icon bar for this. This way 1) user would find applications easier when need to access first time (one time use case, like settings) 2) The usage context "which applications are on my computer" and "which are suggested installed by Dash" and would be more clear I filed a bug report here, but it is little unclear because I didn't know the right concept words for new UI parts: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/846374 The bug report quality is not very great and it could be divided to several feature requests after discussion. System settings ------------------------ I tried to access them through Dash. However, I later found out about the user menu short cut (Mac style, had to Google for it). I desperately tried filtering options in Dash / app applications page, but it is little confusing. Maybe just show one System preferences there and all other preference panes would be accessible only through main System preferences window? Maybe old style "toolbox" icon for the settings should be visible on the "all applications" page? -- Mikko Ohtamaa http://opensourcehacker.com -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
