17 Jan
2012
17 Jan
'12
12:16 a.m.
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(a)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:
closed.
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 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