unity-design team mailing list archive

["pjssilva@xxxxxxxxx" <pjssilva@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Display a flat list of all application launchers, excluding system
> tools and file viewers.  Here's my reasoning:
>
> The default applications list should exclude system tools (because
> they aren't applications from an end-user perspective) and file
> viewers (because they aren't useful when launched directly).  Ubuntu,
> then, comes OOTB with fourteen apps that belong in the launcher --
> aisleriot, calculator, gedit, brasero, empathy[1], firefox,
> gwibber[1], libreoffice, mahjongg, rhythmbox, shotwell, simplescan,
> thunderbird and transmission.

This is true only for a fresh install. You may argue that if the user
installed more applications he/she should know about them and
categorized them if he/she wants to. Sounds reasonable until we
remember a fact: *many, if not most, people do not administer their
computer*. In my place we are four people. I am the system
administrator here. So after I install Ubuntu in a machine I have to
install many applications. Moreover, as each machine may be used by
different family members who have different interests there are many
applications to install. So, even after a fresh install my son will
see not only 14 apps, he will see much more in a flat list. Some of
them are not related to him and he'll have no clue on what to do with
them (what is their category). What should I do? After installing each
application, should I log in as each user and categorize them for the
other users? This does not escalate.

I also administer my mother and mother-in-law computers. The same
reasoning applies.

Obs: Libreoffice actually creates 5 icons as far as I remember
(writer, calc, draw, Impress, and LibreOffice), so the initial number
of icons is 18, not 14.
>
> Using the XDG categorization scheme, those applications get divided
> into six categories; some categories have only one application.  The
> small number of items per category significantly diminishes their
> usefulness, and there's no sensible way of consolidating them.
>

This only again applies to a fresh install. After some some months of
use the number of apps will certainly grow. Fresh install is a
transient state, it should not be used as the main state to make
decisions. It would be much more interesting to think on how many
applications a typical desktop has after some months of use. Maybe
someone has this number.

> Categories are also much harder to pick out of a list than
> applications.  Applications have recognizable, definitive branding.
> Categories lack such branding: the spinning fox is always firefox,
> while a globe could mean many things besides "Internet".  For
> user-installed applications, the branding is extremely prominent in
> the software center, so we can expect users to recognize it.

Categories in Dash now don't have an icon, they have names like
"Internet". So I am not sure what you wanted to point out here. More
important, if I am logging in a system and I am not sure if the
administrator likes Firefox or Chrome, it is much easier to me to look
for Internet. Actually, I know people that know the brand "Firefox" ,
do not know "Chrome", and use Chrome thinking it is Firefox because it
is the installed browser. The application category "browser" is more
important than its branding.

>
> The dash can display 24 icons per page at it's smallest.  On a 1080p
> monitor it can display up to 84 items.  That's plenty of room to fit
> the default apps plus several more installed from the software center.
>  As long as a flat list of all applications fits comfortably on the
> screen, a user can pick an application out of the list without needing
> to interact with the computer at all [2].
>

I don't know about you. I may be old and slow. But for me it is much
nicer to be presented with a small number of categories first (like 8
categories) and then with a small number of apps (like 10), than to
look at a full list of 80 applications. Moreover, many people don't
have 1080p displays. I am using a 17in 1280x1080 LCD. Here the Dash in
its default mode only shows 24 icons.

>
>
> [1] The presence of empathy and gwibber on this list is questionable
> since they come with system branding (the "chat" and "broadcast"
> features of the messaging menu) rather than application branding.
>
> [2] Reducing the amount of input is more important than you might
> think.  Every output->input cycle requires an inexperienced user to
> shift his attention from the screen to the mouse and back.  If the
> entire list is already on the screen, choosing one is a simple task.
> If he must point at a category and then choose an application, it
> involves multiple subtasks.
>

This is an important point. I do agree that to start typing the name
of the application is the faster mode to open an application and in
this sense Dash/Gnome Do/Gnome shell are all great. I am not defending
categories as the main way to open applications. I never did. I am
just saying that I hope that default categories should remain around
so that they can be used by people who prefer to only use the mouse,
specially for people who are new to the system (and don't know all the
installed applications).

best,

Paulo