today Charles added a little image viewer part for Konqueror so you can have a cute little view for viewing image albums in Konqueror. note that this adds one more button to the toolbar, and weighed against that the feature really isn't that compelling IMHO. neither are several of the other views that each result in a toolbar button. bottom line is that this system simply isn't extensible: having more than even a couple view plugins makes the toolbar far too cluttered with stuff you will use rarely if at all.
the situation is similar with other parts of Konqueror, such as embedded previews. there is no way for the user to know they are in a view-only mode (unless they already know that's how it works) and there is no easy way to jump into an edit mode. this has resulted in many mimetypes being set to "Open in New Window".
konqueror is very well designed under the hood. but this great design is betrayed by the interface that wraps it. yes, the GUI is a bit cluttered but that's not the biggest problem (even if people relentlessly rant about it). it's a big problem, but not the biggest. it's more a symptom, really.
the Real Issue(tm) is that Konqi's user interface has never been finished.
view plugins should be coallesced into a single menu on the toolbar. it would even be cool if clicking on the menubutton would by default select the most appropriate view for the currently viewed contents.
there should be a visible indicator that one is in "View only view mode" with a way to easily launch an editor for that mimetype if any exists (this means it must be easily visible, not in a context menu or in the menu bar).
there are many such items in our user interfaces in KDE: well designed technologies that lack a finished user interface to them. we really need to get better in this regard and _finish_ our user interfaces so that we can enjoy those awesome technology decisions and designs fully.
of course, not everything is bleak. there are some apps in KDE that i think are doing a great job in this regard, in particular the PIM space. kopete and kontact have made great progress and a lot attention is being paid to the UI there. kudos.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Yes, it was exactly my sentiment.
KDE has a lot of chance to have a so great developer like you: you've done a lot of good decisions/programming for kicker.
Perhapse you will act in other places in KDE? Or get paid to work on KDE... Hum... I'm dreaming :-D
Keep up the good work!
I wouldn't sell Konqi's UI short while it does have a lot of buttons, it is because it is so powerful.
I hope the trend isn't to turn it into some sort of spacial nautilus minimal functionality, because Konqueror is one of KDE's biggest strengths.
In the case of the views I wish it was more like Windows where instead of a tree view, icon view, file size view and, presumably, image view buttons, it would have one button to cycle through the options, the way the combo boxes on the buttons work now.
That with the ability to customize the toolbar with a button dedicated to specific views, would make it simple without losing any functionality.
> I hope the trend isn't to turn it into some sort of
> spacial nautilus minimal functionality
erm, of course not. what makes you even ask this?
i want to see a better UI that exposes the existing (and future) functionality. i tried to make that clear in my blog =)
>> I hope the trend isn't to turn it into some sort of
>> spacial nautilus minimal functionality
>erm, of course not. what makes you even ask this?
well, what gnome did wasn't fun for some people, so they might be afraid KDE follows, with all the talks about usabillity (gnome made everyone think usabillity is dumbing down the interface...)
>i want to see a better UI that exposes the existing (and >future) functionality. i tried to make that clear in my >blog =)
that's what we all want :D
And you know, you guys already did a great job in this regard... but you are right, konqi still needs some work!
As a disclaimer, i'm strictly a KDE user, not a developer. KDE is brilliant under the hood, but the UI can be painful.
Just as an example of one thing that's broken with Konqueror: the toolbars in general. There's no simple, obvious way to reorder them and drive some sanity into them (a la firefox et al, which give you a simple drag and drop interface).
Another example is that KDE's UI for associating mime types with programs is byzantine. Gnome gets this half-right: it's easy to bring up a list of programs associated with a given file, but adding a new program requires spelunking through the filesystem.
Yes the KDE functionality is all there, the infrastructure is rich and tightly integrated and stable, but the UI is half baked in many places.
That said, I think you wonderful KDE guys are still in a much better place than Gnome -- you guys actually *have* functionality under the hood; no matter how pretty Gnome looks in screenshots, it doesn't actually *do* all that much when you try to use it. IMH(non-developer)O.
We love you Aaron!
Nice Blog!!! I thought I'd tell you about a site that will let give you places where
you can make extra cash! I made over $800 last month. Not bad for not doing much. Just put in your
zip code and up will pop up a list of places that are available. I live in a small area and found quite
a few. MAKE MONEY NOW
Post a Comment