On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 7:19 AM, raw sausage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello, > > I recently reported > (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=406433), my point being: > "Why does gnome-network-manager spam me each time it connects to wlan > with a libnotify-popup?
> This behaviour does not seem very good usability in my humble opinion. > Announcing a normal most usually expected event > I have only one focus, and I value it. Distractions can be quite bad > (see what happened to for instance aircraft cockpits for the same reason btw) I am not the foremost expert in the matter, but I will say as someone who has done several usability studies watching users as they perform tasks in various applications that you sometimes have to make a choice as to which use case you want to optimize for. Some use cases you have to consider are: * Discoverability/learnability for new and novice users * Productivity of power/frequent users * Accessibility for users with a visual or motor skill impairment Sometimes you can find a way to satisfy all of these use cases. Other times you have to choose a trade-off. For example, maybe you'll say: * If we optimize for the novice user what is the impact on productivity? * If we optimize for productivity what is the impact on the novice user? And then choose the lesser of the two evils. Research by others that I've read shows that optimizing for the novice user is often better for productivity so you can kill two birds with one stone by favouring that use case. Since wireless networking has been one of the traditional challenges for Linux desktop users I feel it is appropriate to optimize for the novice user. If in doing so then we cause a distraction then I would suggest you file a feature request asking for the option to disable network connection notifications. Even then you might want to make sure to carefully explain the use case for such a feature. I'm not sure that most people have the problem you're reporting. Maybe it's a corner case in instances where a person has poor wifi coverage that frequently connects and disconnects. I'm not one of these cases (though I do use wifi for my network connection 99+% of the time) but if I were I would appreciate knowing when I had a connection so that I could perform online tasks. Also in the presence of multiple hotspots I would enjoy knowing I'm connected to a network I trust. Therefore I would be negatively impacted by having no notification bubble. -- Matthew Nuzum newz2000 on freenode _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list Usability@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
