unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ian Santopietro <isantop@xxxxxxxxx>]

"""
Why in the world does the *user* need to constantly maximize/restore?
Apps need to open the windows with the right size.
And any app which requires the user to constantly resize is broken.
"""

Maximize does have a lot of very nice use cases, as it can help a user focus
on the task they're trying to complete. I want to work in my web browser,
and I don't want to have to think about other things.

It's tied to why resizing a window is an important feature as well. It
allows me to have control over my workflow, and I can set up a sort of
ratio. I want 50% of my work directed towards my browser, 25% towards
monitoring my social networks with gwibber, and 25% towards watching my
contacts for someone I want to chat with. And, I can set them up how I want,
not how the system thinks I want them. Computers aren't good at guessing
what users want; any Microsoft convert can tell you that.

This case is simple, but it should serve to demonstrate the basic idea.
Could the automatic sizing be implemented? Sure. Is it a good idea? Why not?
But the user should be able to change the size of the window after they've
started it, either because their preference at that moment differed from the
system's guesses, or because the focus of their work has changed, and they
want a different setup.

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 22:31, Vishnoo <vish@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 16:24 +0000, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> > I think the Gnome Shell designers are badly underestimating the use
> > cases for minimize.
>
> No, they havent.
> I take it you havent read Owen's Mail on the Shell ML.. :-)
> They know what use-cases they havent fixed (or dont have a better
> solution for).
> Minimize just doesnt fit their design.
>
> >  And anyone who thinks dragging is a replacement for
> > a maximize button probably hasn't done any user testing recently.
>
> "Maximize" is not a feature we should be encouraging, *anywhere* !
> It is a workaround for a broken window management.
>
> Why in the world does the *user* need to constantly maximize/restore?
> Apps need to open the windows with the right size.
> And any app which requires the user to constantly resize is broken.
>
> For apps requiring a maximum size, window should just open so.
> Right now, for any alternate *custom* size one would require to either:
> 1- restore a maximized window and - then resize to custom size
> or
> 2- resize a window from the normal state to custom size
>
> Maximize just makes it harder to get to custom sizes. Why even have it ?
> (I hope maximize just gets killed, only then will apps fix at their
> end. ;p)
>
> I seriously dont understand why this fascination for resizing/resize
> grips exists.
> I'm not saying that resize feature should not even exist, but Resize is
> something user should not even care about, and should spend less time
> doing.
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Vish
>
>
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-- 
Ian Santopietro
CEO - Prodigy Games

"Eala Earendel enlga beorohtast
 Ofer middangeard monnum sended"

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