Discovering features (Re: Isn't gFTP deprecated?)

[Tuukka Hastrup]

Hello everybody, 
I haven't installed Ubuntu yet, waiting for the Live CD :-) but I wanted
to discuss ideas for the users to more easily discover the features that
are available in the user interface.

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, Britt Selvitelle wrote:
> Agreed here as well. There is a very nice trend developing in Gnome
> applications right now ... Rhythmbox will soon do audio CD burning.
> Nautilus will do data CD burning. Along these lines Nautilus should
> handle generic file transfer as well. IMO FTP falls under this category.

In the long term, I hope the trend continues and applications disappear as
the user-visible modules of desktop features. The preferable alternative
might be "tasks" or "documents", or simply just different "views" of items
that the user is interested in.

> The problem is that these features are not immediately discoverable,
> because inferior operating systems handle this differently, and people
> simply aren't used network specific file transfer in a file manager.

Whatever we end up with, I hope we can make the transition from inferior 
user interfaces smooth for computer users. And this isn't just about 
change, it's more generally about discovering features in the user 
interface. For instance, when you want to convert data from an application 
to another, how do you know whether to export in the first app or import 
in the second? Or if you went backwards and needed to use SSH in an 
inferior operating system, would you guess you don't run ssh in a 
terminal?

> What we really need is some type of interactive application that walks
> new users some of the coolest features of the desktop. Things like
> double-middle-click in spatial nautilus, CD burning, the concept of
> virtual-desktops, etc.

That's one of the help features that would be cool, I wonder if such a 
demo could be scripted easily in some programming environment. (I don't 
want to know, however, what I miss if I'm not able to double-click the 
scroll wheel !-)


For another idea, I suggest we add some entries in the Applications
(Tasks?) menu for specific tasks. One would be "FTP transfer in Nautilus"
or simply "FTP", and could simply pop up a dialog advising the user to
type "ftp://user@host" in the location bar of the Nautilus window that's
about to open. The dialog could also include a form with the appropriate
fields, so the users needn't type the URL themselves if they didn't want
to. I don't know if Nautilus even has or could have a two-panel view
resembling a traditional FTP client for those who prefer such.

Another similar task in the Applications menu could be "Secure shell in 
terminal" or "SSH", and it would open a new terminal window and run the 
command-line ssh in it. Any other ideas for tasks that aren't directly 
visible as applications at the moment?


I suppose my point is that it would be cool if we could put "links" to the
places the user goes to for a feature. The links would not act quite as
the user expects, but they would explain and direct towards the way we
suggest the interface to be used. Even if I knew that Nautilus supports
ftp and sftp URLs, I really didn't know it works well and is even the
preferred method these days.

I don't know how radical the Ubuntu wants to be in the user interface, but 
I hope the Computer menu and "no-icons-on-the-desk" suggest something.


With best regards,
Tuukka

-- 
-- Trying to catch me? Just follow up my Electric Fingerprints
-- To help you: Tuukka.Hastrup at iki.fi
                http://www.iki.fi/Tuukka.Hastrup/
                IRCNet: Stugge/tuukkah @#pii,#fenfire,#ynna
                Jabber ID: tuukka at jabber.org, ICQ #11321669