Some points/issues to discuss about the desktop

[Jeff Waugh]

<quote who="John">

> I think these should be on the desktop:
> Home
> Documents
> Network (i/when a network is detected)
> Photos (if/when the user uses a camera or a photo application)

The upstream take on this is that the desktop is what users have to look at
all the time, so we should leave as much up to them as possible, and not
fill it with stuff (glance at the average Windows desktop to see the logical
conclusion of that). Each icon on the desktop is an in-memory special icon,
not a real file (that's why ~/Desktop is empty), so we have to take into
account that all of these are links, not real.


Home -> should be on the desktop, as that gives the user access to all their
files, which they couldn't get to otherwise.

Documents -> debatable because it's already accessible from the home
directory, where all the users files live, so it doesn't need a special
place on the desktop. by putting it on the desktop at the same time as Home,
we end up with another strange recursion.

Network -> upstream has chosen not to put this on the desktop, instead you
can browse network storage through the Computer icon (where storage stuff
lives). i'm ambivalent about this one.

Photos -> this is not special/important enough to be on the desktop, and it
would be well-represented by a real folder in the home directory, along with
Desktop, Documents, Music, Templates, etc. OS X primes the home directory
with a set of useful default folders, which is pretty much what upstream
would like to see happen in distros.


Mark has asked us to replace the Home icon with a Documents icon, and if we
get the trash applet, remove the Trash icon. Much of this can be done with
configuration settings, so we're not really changing code (and importantly,
you can switch it back to normal if you want to).

> My parents (in their eighties) will have problems with menus. Folders,
> probably with single-click activation - I remember having problems with
> double-click in OS/2, are far easier to use.

Unfortunately, single-click activation has a lot of side-effects with other
operations, such as selecting files and so on. It's enough of an established
convention that changing it ends up being a loss rather than a gain. There
are a lot of 'interesting' decisions we just end up having to live with in
HCI/GUI design. :-)

- Jeff

-- 
What's all that about?                           http://www.no-name-yet.com/
 
   "She sped into the parking lot, the door flew open and there she was,
   dressed only in a black bathing suit and sunglasses. I got in and she
     reversed straight into another car. Classic Carine." - Stephen Gan