On Sat, 4 Feb 2006, Kyle Brooks wrote: > Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 18:43:29 -0500 > From: Kyle Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Usability <[email protected]> > Subject: [Usability] Gparted: a usable program > > Hi all. > > Gparted is a usable program because it has similar looks and > functionality to a competing program named PartitionMagic. > > It is simple to use. Maybe it could be made simpler to use. Thoughts?
References please. I had to look them up so for anyone else who might be interested GParted website http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ GParted screenshots http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php Google Image search for gparted http://images.google.com/images?q=gparted I'm not sure disliking the gname counts as a usability issue but Gparted certainly seems like a poor choice of top level menu label and over aggressive branding at the very least. (Since it is a Partition Editor then Edit might be a good choice but I'd have to look closer. I prefer verbs for top level menu labels.) I'm a big fan of competative analysis. How well does Gparted compare to recent versions of Partition Magic or other partition tools? Does Gparted show descriptions of things (in particular all menu items) in the Status bar on mouse over? Can everything be accessed from the menus? Having only three top level menus seems almost like a waste of a menu bar for such a complex program and I expect there might be room for more. (Never force me to right click.) Can the toolbar text labels be shown? (If appropriate do they follow the gnome toolbar settings?) I would hope I wouldn't have to use a partition tool very often, so the less terminology I'm force to learn the better. Are things explained and documented within the interface or must you refer to the manual? (Avoid acronyms and abbreviations, keep jargon to a minimum, try to explain why one might prefer Ext3 or ReiserFS in context at the time when you are most likely to want to know?) Those are just a few thoughts off the top of my head. I could probably come up with more solid suggestions if I were to use a few Partition programs, including Gparted and to reread the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines. Also if I was talking to the developer and they were interested in making substantial changes I might more of an effort to take a holistic approach rather than merely tweaking superficial details. Sincerely Alan Horkan Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/ Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/ _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
