Common Usability Terms: pt. VI: the Dock
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 18th Nov 2007 15:46 UTC
Graphics, User Interfaces This is the sixth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III | part IV | part V]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part VI, we focus on the dock.
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hobgoblin
Member since:
2005-07-06

in linux you can work the way you want to, there is no set desktop in linux.

but gnome and kde use a lot of windows elements as that is what most potential users are used to.

btw, did you just call non-apple users stupid without being direct about it?

anyways, i would say both ways have its issues, and its related to using windows the way they do. i wonder if not one should take a step back to the days before apple introduced free-floating windows.

some of those wm's on *nix seems interesting in that regard.

Reply Parent Score: 4

tupp Member since:
2006-11-12

i wonder if not one should take a step back to the days before apple introduced free-floating windows.

Apple did not invent free-floating windows -- the Xerox Alto and Xerox Star had them long before Apple: http://toastytech.com/guis/altost1.jpg
http://toastytech.com/guis/altost2.jpg The Three Rivers PERQ also had them before Apple: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/perqt2/perqzoom.jpg

Edited 2007-11-18 22:30

Reply Parent Score: 1

Almafeta Member since:
2007-02-22

He said 'introduce', not 'invent.'

Although a handful of other products had them before Apple, Apple was the company that introduced them to the public (and the industry) at large.

Reply Parent Score: 1

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hobgoblin Member since:
2005-07-06

well you learn something every day ;)

i thought the first gui's had non-overlapping windows because it was found to confusing for the user...

Reply Parent Score: 2

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google_ninja Member since:
2006-02-05

I didn't call anyone stupid, I was talking about how it feels to work in the windows style modal paradigm vs the mac classic spatial paradigm. It has nothing to do with intelligence of the users, and everything to do with the philosophy behind the design descisions.

in linux you can work the way you want to, there is no set desktop in linux.

but gnome and kde use a lot of windows elements as that is what most potential users are used to.


I have yet to run across a really spatial WM in linux. There isn't anything that is even equivilent to OSX, and OSX is a far cry from Mac Classic in this regard. Of course, I could be wrong.

And really, I'm not trying to be insulting or anything. Mac Classic had this approach, BeOS had it, OSX has it to a degree, and even though I have never used NeXT, from what I have read it looks like it had it.

anyways, i would say both ways have its issues, and its related to using windows the way they do. i wonder if not one should take a step back to the days before apple introduced free-floating windows.

some of those wm's on *nix seems interesting in that regard.


twm and ratpoison leap to mind.

That is again, a completely different way of approaching things. I was talking about the mac and the windows approach, and how the taskbar and the dock address the space of task switching differently.

Reply Parent Score: 3

tupp Member since:
2006-11-12

I was talking about how it feels to work in the windows style modal paradigm vs the mac classic spatial paradigm.

I have yet to run across a really spatial WM in linux.


What do you mean by "spatial?"

Reply Parent Score: 1

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hobgoblin Member since:
2005-07-06

ok, ok, i guess i was jumping the gun there.

thing is that if your used to windows and go to mac you run into just as many gotchas as when you go from mac to windows.

different folks, different strokes. if just we could agree on file types and let people share data effortlessly then one could use whatever one wanted. but right now thats needlessly segregated thanks to attempted lock-ins, leading to people "having" to use os whatever to work with specific kinds of data.

edit:

iirc, later versions of office have gone away from the window in window (mdi?) interface and over to one window, one file.

and you can set the explorer to open each folder in its own window, and if you try to open a folder a second time, it will just highlight the existing window.

konqueror under kde have the same option. in gnome i dont know.

still, beyond that i guess its every app for it self.
recent versions of adobe acrobat have gotten a weird behavior. it mixes mdi and spatial in the most confusing way. yes there are one button on the taskbar pr opened file. but if you dont watch out you can close them all by closing one of them...

and didnt web browsers go with tabs because people got fed up with IE having a button pr open page?

some times spatial works, sometimes it dont apparently...

Edited 2007-11-19 05:32 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2