Comments on: Accessing files made easy – Exploring vs Finding

By: sprzątanie nagrobków

sprzątanie nagrobków — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:03:19 +0000

What can I say other than – WOW!

By: einalex

einalex — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:29:06 +0000

I don’t think the verb approach will work on this one since you can do whatever you want with the file you “found” and verbs like browse or find or search don’t work either…searching for something as an activity is completely different from just getting to the file when you know where it is.

also the “Places” has to go. Even with the citizen metaphor Matteo explained your files will still be in your house and not somewhere outside. In my mind Library” makes the whole thing very text centric. I like “Archive” as Jimbo suggested.

One last point: Not everyone is blessed with a widescreen monitor or that much screen realestate in general. On this 12″ 1024×768 screen there is _no space left at all_ in the top panel. I would sacrifice some of my 7 starters for an Archive Button. Adding more than one is completely out of the question.

Nice work Seif

By: J.C. Denton

J.C. Denton — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:45:34 +0000

I’m a bit older than most people here so I got used to different technologies when it comes to GUIs. I think browsing files is one of the most important things when it comes to administrating an OS or when doing daily work. Years ago Sun Microsystems started developing a new GUI with *usefull* 3D effects — not the crap Microsoft did simply to ceate something that is cool. GNOME shell, Elive and *box are different concepts on how to effectively use a computer system. Regarding the article I think your grandma *should* lear the basic foundations of OS file organization. The approach you made does not solve the underlying problem nor is it usefull enough for experienced users.

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Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:51:01 +0000

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By: gebi

gebi — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:43:58 +0000

why not just add a search bar (with the text “search” — gray letters in the background) nothing more – like a web-browser does. Not clicking on anything. The standard how users work with a computer/desktop is how they browse the web ?!
E.g the user types “photos” this should search for it. That means – we would need a search engine which understands keywords/ontology. this hard to implement and I would like to hear if zeitgeist will go in this direction.

By: Seif Lotfy

Seif Lotfy — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:28:34 +0000

@Alberto: Sure it is. But I assume under Activity to find “Open”, “Create” or “Read” and not Desktop and Applications

By: Alberto Ruiz

Alberto Ruiz — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:16:28 +0000

Because viewing a document _IS_ an activity!

By: Matteo

Matteo — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:12:45 +0000

@Jimbo: How does a ‘Place’ even relate to the concept folders and harddrives?

I think this is related to the metaphor Linux uses for the gui.

In Windows the user is an office workers, he uses documents (files) archived in folders (directories) and when a file is no longer useful it is trashed into the bin.

In Linux the user is a citizen, he lives in his house (/home/username directory) in a city with other citizens (/home/…). Everyone does what he wants in his house, and throw the garbage into the pelmet.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:33:43 +0000

The problem with the “verb” approach becomes picking the right verb; users with a different verb in mind will gloss over the option you provide if it doesn’t match their expectations. If you say “Find”, that may not draw the attention of a user who wanted to “Play”, or “Delete”, or “Print”. You might hypothesize that they have to “Find” first, but in doing so you assume a certain algorithmic mindset not necessarily present in all people.

By contrast, the set of useful nouns proves much easier to predict.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:29:48 +0000

How about a much more obvious and direct name: “Files”. That also directly suggests subsets like “Documents”, “Music”, “Pictures”, and so on.