unity-design team mailing list archive

[shane lee <shaneymail@xxxxxxxxx>]

I do understand the reasoning for dodge removal but shouldn't the usability
tests have suggested the problems in the first place?
Obviously, removing a feature that has been default for a full release is
going to have much more impact than a feature that is wanted but has never
been included or is against design principles?

I have been very much in support of dodge on these mailing lists mainly for
that reason, that it is a default feature that users (maybe some of them
were new with that release) have become used to.
I also warned to expect more backlash once 12.04 was actually released with
the feature missing.

For my part, I loved dodge and did get used to it but I also got used to
not using it just as quickly once it was removed from 12.04 testing.
I can only suggest other people either adapt and do things slightly
differently, use other means (patches, PPA's and howto's easily available)
or move on to another distro or desktop environment.

I don't believe any amount of pressure is going to bring dodge back in any
shape or form so it is probably best to accept it.

There will never be a feature that suits all people, just as not all
choices of default apps suit everyone.

On 4 May 2012 13:48, Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Marco Biscaro <marcobiscaro2112@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> 2012/5/4 Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx>
>>
>>>
>>> When designing a large, widely-used project like Unity you have to be
>>> brutally strict about what is allowed in terms of features and options, or
>>> else the project begins to bloat under the weight of hundreds of these
>>> 'little' features and options. It starts being slow, buggy, and painful to
>>> use.
>>>
>>>
>> So, does it means that unity tends to be less customizable and to have
>> less features to be less "slow, buggy and painful to use"?
>>
>
> It means that Unity tries to only add features and options where the
> benefit of those features outweighs the rather large cost of supporting
> them. It's not against features in general, it just sets a very high bar
> for how useful those features have to be in order to be accepted.
>
> The dodge feature doesn't meet this requirement, since 90% of its use
> cases are covered by auto-hide and the benefit provided by the other 10% is
> minor. Additionally, usability testing showed it was not easily grasped by
> new users.
>
> Evan
>
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