[Gramps-devel] Gnome HIG remarks

[Raphael A. <rap...@gm...>]

I've started reading the Gnome HIG
http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/index.html.en and have
a few comments and questions regarding what could be done to improve
user interaction with gramps.


All the menus should be checked for unique mnemonics and if an entry
doesn't have a mnemonic to allow keyboard only navigation, then add
one.

From: http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/menus-standard.html.en
Place application-specific menus after the Format menu and before the Go me=
nu
Which would mean that the Reports and Tools menus should really go
just before the Go and the Bookmarks menu, whereas now they are right
after the Bookmarks menu.

In the Edit menu:
The scratchpad should be renamed to "Clip Board" as agreed on the
issue tracker.
Should we add a copy action that would move the selected object onto
the "Clib Board". According to the HIG that's what a copy does:) "Copy
=09Ctrl+C =09Copies the selected content onto the clipboard."  This would
also make the scratchpad easier to use. instead of having to drag and
drop items on it, a simple Ctrl+C would suffice.

the action|Edit entry seems to be odd. Could it just be Edit?

Bookmarks menu:
>From HIG: http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/menus-standard.htm=
l.en#Bookmarks

Gramps uses individual bookmark lists for every view. Bookmarking an
event will put it on the event bookmark list etc. When editing
bookmarks, you only see the bookmarks of the view that is currently
selected.

The HIG however say that Edit Bookmarks is for: "Allows the user to
edit the application's bookmark"  which I would understand as all of
gramps bookmarks and not just he one of the current view. Which makes
sense for editing.  It would also be possible to always show all the
bookmarks, or at least have a submenu with the bookmarks that do not
belong to the current view. This would allow the user to jump to a
bookmark without first having to change the view.

Go menu:
Why does the People View has a Go menu but other list views do not? It
has go back and forward and moves between the people last opened in a
person editor. This use case could also be implemented for other
views. If somebody is editing sources or places, he could go back and
forth between them. Is there a reason why there is no Go menu for
them? Should I file a feature request?

Menu titles:
All the menu titles should be single words. Which is not the case for
"Family Trees"  This could be mistaken for two menu items, "Family"
and "Trees", but I am not sure whether that is a problem.  See the
guideline below:

"Menu titles on a menubar are single words with their first letter
capitalized. Do not use spaces in menu titles, as this makes them
easily-mistaken for two separate menu titles. Do not use compound
words (such as WindowOptions) or hyphens (such as Window-Options) to
circumvent this guideline."

The HIG also says that if you don't work on Files, then call the Files
menu something different, which is the case in Gramps. I am not sure
however whether we actually deal with "Family Trees". "Family Trees"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree are a certain representation
of somebody's ancestors. A gramps database however usually doesn't
just hold somebody's ancestors but also descendants and other
relatives. It might make sense to search for a better word to describe
what is stored in a gramps db.

The HIG also has the following guideline: "Do not disable menu titles.
Allow the user to explore the menu, even though there might be no
available items on it at that time." Gramps does hide menu items and
only shows them if there is some content in them. I think that only
the "Go" menu item is hidden from all the views but People and
Pedigree.  I recommend showing the Go menu item in all the views and
also add back and forward functionality to the other views. Until
then, it could just be an empty menu in views who do not support it.
Or it could just show the Go Home button.

Popup menus: http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/menus-types.htm=
l.en#menu-type-popup

Some work needs to be done on popup menus if they should follow the HI
guidelines.
# Provide an access key for each item. However, to enhance their
spatial efficiency and readability, do not show keyboard shortcuts in
popup menus.
#Since the user may not be aware of their presence, do not provide
functions that are only accessible from popup menus unless you are
confident that your target users will know how to use popup menus.
--> I think the popup menu items not present in the menubar should be
added to the menubar, and in some cases it makes sense to add items
from the menubar to the popup menu.
#Order items on a popup menu as follows: ....... See the above link
for ordering guidelines.

Menu items in general:
"Label the menu item with a trailing ellipsis ("...") only if the
command requires further input from the user before it can be
performed. Do not add an ellipsis to items that only present a
confirmation dialog (such as Delete), or that do not require further
input (such as Properties, Preferences or About)."

Things like "Edit->Compare and Merge" should have ... to indicate that
there is user input needed.

Toolbar:
# Provide options to show toolbar buttons as text, graphics or both=97
see Figure 5-2 for the menus to use for controlling toolbar display.
Also provide an option to return all toolbars in your application to
the control center default for this setting.

I don't seem to be able to find such an option in gramps.

Checks to run:
http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/checks-yourself.html.en
# Context sensitive menus display correctly (Shift+F10).
# Tooltips can be popped up and down for all controls that have them
(Ctrl+F1, Esc).