Tooltips are not a user manual

[Emmanuel Pacaud]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

Using gnome-panel from ubuntu hardy (2.21.91), the workspace switcher has big
tooltips explaining its use.

I don't think it's a good idea:

- tooltips should stay small, these ones are big.
- they should not be a substitute to the user manual.
- the one for the first workspace area hides almost completely the workspace
switcher.
- icons are distracting.

[Murat Gunes (mgunes)]

Thanks for your report. The tooltips in 2.21.91 don't look new to me; they're the same ones used in the version in Ubuntu 7.10. Which are the icons you're referring to?

[Emmanuel Pacaud (emmanuel-pacaud)]

Here's a screenshot.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. We have been discussing that this week. The intend is to make easier for users to discover those feature, the tooltip is not optimal and we have been discussing this. Do you have suggestions about a better way to show them? User testing shows most people don't read the user guide. We are considering using the context menu to list those actions, what do you think about that?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I've subscribed the people who have been working on those changes or that might have suggestion on a better design

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

using tedg subscribed the wrong ted, can't unsubscribed the wrong ted now, you can do it from the sidepane though

[Emmanuel Pacaud (emmanuel-pacaud)]

« The intend is to make easier for users to discover those feature, the tooltip is not optimal and we have been discussing this. »

My take on this one would be:

- people that interract with the desktop mostly using the mouse will discover the mouse features by themselves.
- I think people that want to use keyboard shortcuts have been used to search them. And the shortcuts can be found either by reading the user manual which is available directly using the popup menu, or by using the keyboard shortcut dialog in system->preferences.

So I don't think we really need to add yet another way to discover the features. But that's only my opinion, not the result of a usability study :)

« We are considering using the context menu to list those actions, what do you think about that? »

That would be better, yes. And a way to show the shortcuts that is consistent the the regular application menus.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> - people that interract with the desktop mostly using the mouse will discover the mouse features by themselves.

That's not really true, compiz has feature expo, scale and zoom features which can't be triggered using the mouse using the default configuration for example

[Emmanuel Pacaud (emmanuel-pacaud)]

>> - people that interract with the desktop mostly using the mouse will discover the mouse features by themselves.

>That's not really true, compiz has feature expo, scale and zoom features which can't be triggered using the mouse using the default configuration for example

Ok, so the correct sentence is:

- people that interract with the desktop mostly using the mouse will discover the enabled mouse features by themselves.

You don't suggest to put a line in tooltips or context menus for every disabled features, do you ?