
Various KDE 1.-4. Improvements
Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net
this is my first post here.
i updated my system to kde 3.2 and noticed some improvements in usability in general. however, the configuration-dialog for konqueror is still painful - this thing is nearly unusable for average users.
i installed the qt3-designer to play with some UI-elements. my idea was to split up the configuration dialog in four big parts: one for konqueror as a file manager, one for konqueror as a browser, one for security issues and one for "advanced" users (this will contain all the weird features i did never touch). today, the configuration dialog consists of 17 (!) elements (the icons on the left) with sub-elements for each. i've made a tree-structure for nearly the whole thing (for those who are interested: i used the program called "freemind". it's in the bz2-file) - it looks horrible.
so i restrcutured and reorganized the menus and items (maybe quite arbitrary), collected the most useful features in the main sections and moved the other stuff into expert mode - for people who like to mess around with every SSL-algorithm.
this is just an idea. who knows - maybe somebody may like it... :-)
16 years ago
removed screenshots because they break already existing ui-standards for configuration dialoges (thanks to comments / kde-usability). created a (quick 'n dirty but standard-compliant) dialoge for general settings (just one module for now).
"create custom..." buttons should lead to a dialoge with advanced options.
old screenshots remain in the bz2-archive.
16 years ago
removed screenshots because they break already existing ui-standards for configuration dialoges (thanks to comments / kde-usability). created a (quick 'n dirty but standard-compliant) dialoge for general settings (just one module for now).
"create custom..." buttons should lead to a dialoge with advanced options.
old screenshots remain in the bz2-archive.
Saem
16 years ago
The best way to start this would be to identify all the differen ways Konqueror is used. Once that's done break down the preferences for each of those ways.
Straight off the bat it's for filesystem and web browsing. So you have settings relating PURELY to file system browsing and those PURELY to web browsing. Lastly, you have settings which are common to BOTH. Now for the sake of user friendliness we should also split the first two sets of settings (say that three times fast ;) across "advanceness". That is it asking the average user too much. Those should go into the advance settings.
So we have GENERAL (shared and simple), WEB, File and ADVANCED (shared and complex).
Now, I don't have time at the moment and since this is your project, how about you take the setting options that exist in the current control panel and list them in those 4 categories. After that I'll help you out some more.
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Saem
16 years ago
ADVANCED should have ANY setting from any set that is too advance. Best way would be to have tabs within ADVANCED, such as general, web and file system.
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dsemblano
16 years ago
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eyecorners
16 years ago
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Linuster
16 years ago
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nileshbansal
16 years ago
This applies to everything from konqueror to mobile that there should be a option that sets all *advanced options* to defaults.
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natas12
16 years ago
maybe it could be split up in just two sections - "basic" and "advanced". "basic" will let you change some common features (your home-URL, turn on / turn off java, etc.). "advanced" will let you play around with the rest of the options. another possiblity: steal the security-dialog from firebird (it has this "panic-button" for deleting every private information - really cool!).
in my opinion, the number of changeable options should be reduced anyway - it is easier to install a whole linux-system than configuring konqui. but this is part of the "KDE needs user-levels" - discussion, so maybe i'll join the usability-mailinglist when i have more spare time regularly...
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leinir
16 years ago
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test777
16 years ago
doesn't respect the GUI design of others kde application.
check the configuration screen in kate, kview, kdevelop, kghostview, kmail, ...
regards.
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respite
16 years ago
I do not believe these designs are in the right direction though. As people have already mentioned, you shouldn't need to click settings and then click into another different settings dialogue (browser, files, advanced), and besides this does not fit in well with the rest of the system.
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mojavelinux
16 years ago
Currently, both the category for file manager and browser are labeled as "Behavior" with an icon for the respective category. I believe that this is not very clear and should be changed to "File Manager" and "Browser" appropriately. When glancing, you don't have time to associate icons to meanings as the words will be much more applicable. Definitely I believe this suggestion should be taken up with KDE.
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redrat
16 years ago
-redrat
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linuxdude
16 years ago
Most of the time you dont need to change things and it can be done all in one window, I mean how are can it be. I do wounder if people at kde-look have properly got used to linux and KDE at all.
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vide
16 years ago
The answer is pretty simple: cause not everybody is a geek, a developer, a power-user or whatever else. Lots of people are simply USERS. They want to surf the web, ftp and all other "things" Konqui is able to, but they don't know, and they don't WANT TO know what are the technical settings behind. Obviously a more detailed level of config shall be always there, but maybe a click more away, so only the ones who really want to set it could do it, as they are doing now.
Scalability based on user.
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MMax
16 years ago
It shouldn't mather if it's some hacker system or some crap that hardly works.
I agree that is better to get done all in one window.
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leinir
16 years ago
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elektroschock
16 years ago
So the usability may get worse.
It is very important to get an consistent UI. Your proposal is "different" configuration style, so it would have to be applied for other apps as well.
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jadrian
16 years ago
Subscribe:
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
Archives:
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-usability&r=1&w=2
About your sugestion, to be honest I don't have much time right now so don't have that much to say, but I did notice that you have entries for configuring Konq as a filemanager and web browser. Well those are only two profiles of konqueror, mine comes with 4 profiles by default we can create our own, so I don't think the dialog can be done that way.
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mETz
16 years ago
Granted, the konq prefs is a monster but splitting it up into more than one dialog doesn't improve it at all.
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anilet
16 years ago
This seems to be a good idea
Present conf dialog is indeed cluttered.
Anil
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linuxdude
16 years ago
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joaobr
16 years ago
I am KDE as well but there arfe lots of really good looks and features in MS apps ...
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wranga
16 years ago
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hbush
16 years ago
By the way - how? I could not find sofar how to set URL for Konqueror to open when starting. Certainly it's _not_ what anyone might expect - Settings -> Configure Konqueror -> Home URL, this setting does not work as starting URL.
Good example for necessity to change something in this "Configurating Jungle".
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leinir
16 years ago
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