Some recent changes

[Bryan Clark]

On 20/10/09 6:41 AM, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-10-20 at 18:42 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>    
>> On 10/20/2009 06:24 PM, Matthias Clasen wrote:
>>      
>>> Since some folks have wondered, here is a list of some recent changes we
>>> have done to the panel configuration in the desktop spin:
>>>
>>> - Gnote has been moved to the left, with the other launchers, the user
>>> switcher has been moved to the far right and the show desktop button has
>>> been removed.
>>>        
>> Why did you remove the show desktop button?
>>      
> Because 'where did all my windows suddenly disappear to ?' is a very
> frightening question for people who are not aware what they just clicked
> by accident.
>
>    
I wasn't a part of this change or the discussion around it, just 
offering some experience here.

This button was a constant problem reported by new users.  The placement 
seemed correct for GNOME and has been for a few years now, however for 
users transitioning from the windows world it was actually a horrible 
placement.  Windows users thought the show desktop button looked like a 
"start button" equivalent and the icon is supposed to represent a 
"desktop".  However instead of showing an applications menu it acts like 
it closes all the windows; even though it just minimizes them.

In terms of usability for Windows users transitioning to GNOME this 
design was a disaster as this button as often one of their 
interactions.  Even after using GNOME for a while we still got plenty of 
reports of people "losing all their windows" because that old habit of 
clicking on the bottom left icon came back to them.

There are likely lots of possible resolutions to the problem other than 
removing it however removing it also seems like a reasonable avenue to 
me until the other issues are fixed as this is easily added back for 
those who miss it.

~ Bryan