Week Three

This week I didn't find many usability issues. The system is now set-up

to my preference and I am at least as efficient at doing everyday task

as I am in Windows. I found a configurable keyboard shortcut function

and have been making use of a few shortcuts.

A few minor usability issues were found:

Moving shortcut icons on the panel

The process to excuse the term is “fiddly”. I can't move them where I

want easily and it deletes them when you drag and drop them too near

another shortcut, which is irritating and leads to the user having to

“right click – add to panel – application launcher” and then finding the

shortcut. Accidental deletes like this should not be possible and the

panel should have hidden structure so that placements are easy and the

panel can be kept organized.

X-Chat GNOME IRC client

If you click the close window cross it completely closes the program.

Applications like this should remove themselves from the task bar, but

stay easily accessible to the user by the system leaving a shortcut icon

at the top right hand of the panel (as it does with Pidgeon messenger

and Twitux). Clicking the shortcut icon should then bring the user back

to the application fully loaded with the conversations and channels as

they were. In other words the program should be running in the

background at all times unless the user tells it specifically otherwise.

I am pretty sure almost all IRC users would agree here, as current

inadequacy can be very irritating.

WINE

Linux's answer to running windows application within it. Whilst it can

be very useful and the integration into the system is good,

compatibility is poor. If they make it work as well as it possibly could

they would attract a lot more users and stop Ubuntu users dual booting

alongside Windows.

Add/Remove Manager

This is one of the greatest usability gems for Ubuntu, removing the

need for manual installs using the command line install that is

necessary in other Linux systems, and removing the need to browse the web

with no guidance as is necessary in Windows. However there should be a

sophisticated alternative search function built into the application.

This would help users cope with spelling mistakes and typos, and could

also potentially have a “If you like this, try this” type function.

Drawer Widget

A nice little widget I found that can be placed on the panel and

cleverly borrows a real world metaphor. Files, can be stored away in the

drawer by drag and dropping. Clicking the drawer forces a sliding drop

down allowing access to the files. However, there is no obvious way of

deleting items in the drawer. Right clicking opens up the menu for the

draw itself not the file. Drag and dropping to the recycle bin is not

permitted. Drag and dropping to the desktop just creates another copy on

the desktop. The only option is to delete the drawer. Pretty poor design.

Mac OS: A final note

I took the time this week experimenting with a Mac book with the latest

Mac OS and it has some interesting features. Though Ubuntu would need

specific hardware to do some of the really clever things like gesture

recognition (which they cannot do because hardware is out of their

control); perhaps Ubuntu can learn a thing or two from their competitor.