This whole discussing of changing defaults has some merit to it. I personally have been using "Centered" as my default due to problems restoring previously saved sessions with "Smart" placement turned on. Case in point: KPDF.

Usually, if I have one or two KDPF windows open, the system would restore them not as I left them (maximized) but in a quarter of the screen size in the top left corner. This is bad and I haven't noticed this since changing to "Centered". This is probably an unrelated bug but the Smart placement doesn't seem optimal right now, especially for people with small size screens. I would like to hear if users have had similar problems.

I have tried it and think that from the user's PoV it is probably better to open the windows in cascade mode than Centered, since they typically upon one on top of the other. Smart I have also tried but it seems to have some poor settings like opening KPDF in a small window, whereas typically one would want it full screen in a 1280x1024 screen, though perhaps that's not the case for someone with a 1920x1080 one, which are rather common nowadays.

I have definitely liked reading your input Martin, as I've always had a special interest in hearing about usability and what can be done to improve the user's interaction with the system that is provided to them.

Best regards,
Tiago

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 5:42 PM, Martin Gräßlin <mgraesslin@kde.org> wrote:
Normally I would not reply to a thread after a decision has been done. I do it
nevertheless to point out a mistake with the proposal in general. This is to
show you where to improve in future when discussion changes of defaults.

On Sunday 15 January 2012 15:13:51 Darrell Anderson wrote:
> > I quite agree. That's why centered is *not* a useful
> > placement strategy. It
> > requires users to move their windows to have it useable.
> > This is the worst
> > thing which could happen.
>
> Not really. I have used Centered for years. Here is a difference: I
> configure most apps to open maximized. Those few that I open in
> non-maximized mode typically get opened for a few moments and then closed.
> So for me, Centered is useful.
Here we have an important piece of information: you changed your settings to
use placement strategy centered *and* configured most apps to open maximized.
So what you are using is in fact a "Maximized or Centered" placement strategy
which does not exist. Changing the default option does not yield in your
desired behavior.

This means in order to really use your proposed default settings users would
have to change either other options or more defaults would have had to be
changed.

Now during the discussion it was not clear to me that you want further
changes. My argumentation was around the placement strategy "centered" which
has clear disadvantages. I pointed you to them and asked you to try centered
as a placement strategy for a few days (of course I considered this with other
default settings and not your own settings) and I also asked you to think not
from your point of view. Here I'm sorry you clearly failed as you did not even
notice that you had further changes. You need to try to think how the system
behaves for the user. This is difficult and needs training :-)

So for future proposals I suggest you to first really try it with default
settings. A good way to do that is to create a new user account. Also try to
not propose the things you use if you have a highly configured system.
Defaults have to be good for a large user base. It is impossible to find
defaults which are perfect for all. That's quite an important lesson to learn:
you cannot write software to suit all users needs. People are different and
that's great. So the best default is hardly the one which works perfect for a
subgroup of your userbase, but most likely the option which sucks least for
all users is the best one. It's not nice, but especially on defaults it's
important to find a good compromise. Also never tailor towards the needs of
advanced users. They are advanced users, they find the settings ;-)

Also on an unrelated note: you talked a lot about usability studies and
demanded them from me who was in favor of the existing default. Now this is of
course completely wrong. You want the default to be changed, so it's your duty
to deliver the usability study as a proof to your case.

Cheers
Martin Gräßlin