[bt-devel] New Windows users and user experience

[Greg Hellings]

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 8:45 AM, Eeli Kaikkonen
<eekaikko at mail.student.oulu.fi> wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Nov 2009, Daniel Owens wrote:
>
>> This discussion is quickly passing me by, but I have one suggestion for
>> you to consider. The main BibeTime toolbar is pretty sparse, with only 4
>> items. I would think Windows users would prefer to have a bit more at
>> their fingertips and not have to hunt at all in the menus (we're lazy!).
>> I think especially of the bookshelf manager and preferences dialog. If
>> those had icons on the toolbar it would make it a bit easier for new
>> users to navigate. Just a thought.
>
> Good idea. The current main toolbar is only half useful now. Adding for
> example the Bookshelf Manager (with tooltip "Install new works" would
> help new users. The Config dialog is so and so - personally I don't like
> having it in the toolbar for any application. We shouldn't get too
> excited about adding new buttons lest it become too populated and loose
> the attraction and easyness. Less than 10 seems to be quite popular. We
> should do a user survey to find out which menu items are used regularly
> :)

I'll be the first to respond - I don't use any of them, because I
frankly have no idea what they do.  Hovering over them and waiting for
a tooltip is supremely annoying to me.  The only way I'll use a
toolbar is if either

1) The buttons have identical or very nearly identical icons with
nearly identical functions to office programs (e.g.
save/open/new/copy/cut/paste), or
2) The buttons have labels which are always visible.

If at least one of those criteria is not met, I will just ignore the
toolbar and look for menu options.

--Greg

>
> BTW, having a Quit button in the main toolbar isn't very wise in my
> opinion. It might be proper for a small application which can put all
> actions in the menu and which is opened and closed often, but none of
> the medium or large apps which I have seen puts it there. Imagine a web
> browser or an office app having it - no chance.
>
>  Yours,
>        Eeli Kaikkonen (Mr.), Oulu, Finland
>        e-mail: eekaikko at mailx.studentx.oulux.fix (with no x)
>
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