85 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
85 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
From rssfeeds@jmason.org Thu Sep 26 16:33:54 2002
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<jm@jmason.org>; Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:27:43 +0100
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To: yyyy@spamassassin.taint.org
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From: "hyatt@mozilla" <rssfeeds@spamassassin.taint.org>
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Subject: Usability Problems with Mozilla
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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:27:42 -0000
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Content-Type: text/plain; encoding=utf-8
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URL: http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/#85409355
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Date: Not supplied
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Blake blogs[1] about how mpt[2] wants Mozilla to look just like MSIE. I have to
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admit, the evidence is pretty compelling. I recall someone asking me, "Do you
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really agree with mpt's Top 10 list? He's quoted you at the top of the list!"
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Do I agree that those ten items mpt mentions are the top ten problems? Of
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course not. No two people will have the same top ten problems. Also keep in
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mind that mpt and I can agree that something is a problem without necessarily
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agreeing on the solution to the problem. Maybe we have different ideas
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regarding how to solve a particular issue, but we at least both believe it is
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an issue that needs to be addressed. That's something.
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To cover the list specifically:
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- Navigator chrome structure - While I don't necessarily agree with mpt's
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proposed default configuration, I do agree that the chrome structure is
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painfully restrictive, and that customizable toolbars need to be implemented in
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order for us to acquire the flexibility to deal with this problem.
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- Speed - can't argue with this, except to say that cutting out a lot of the
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useless UI and features from the chrome helps substantially. Reduce bloat, gain
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speed.
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- Text editing - if you use Chimera on the Mac, you'll see that the textfield
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widget is easily the most painful part of the entire application. It's buggy,
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slow, misbehaves, and doesn't edit the way you'd expect. This is IMO Chimera's
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top usability problem.
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- Message display - Yes. No argument here.
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- Search - Yeah, it's a mess. Don't know if it would be in my top ten, but it's
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a mess.
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- Menu structure - This gets back to my blog about how the apps should be
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separated. The menu structure has been complicated in order to deal with
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multiple applications. A clean separation naturally simplifies the menus (e.g.,
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you can eliminate the New submenu easily).
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- Migration - A problem, but IMO not one of the top ten facing Mozilla.
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- Context menus - mpt complains about two-click context menus, and yet, the OS
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default on Win32 (overwhelmingly) is to bring up a context menu on a mouse up.
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If you don't like it, complain about Win32, but don't cite this as a Mozilla
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usability problem when we're following the conventions of the operating system.
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(We simply listen for the WM_CONTEXTMENU message. That message fires when Win32
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wants to fire it.)
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- Validation - Err, no. Not a usability problem. To the average bear, this is
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completely irrelevant.
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- Preferences - IMO this should be much higher on the list. Preferences are a
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tangled pathetic mess. Again, separating prefs for individual apps into unique
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dialogs would simplify things a great deal, but we should also remove nearly
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half the preferences that exist from the GUI. Mozilla is ridiculously
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overconfigurable.
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[1] http://www.blakeross.com/archives/2002_08_18_index.html#80418641
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[2] http://mpt.phrasewise.com
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