Development/Ideas/Mandriva 2007/UI Review
From Mandriva Community Wiki
Mandriva Linux 2007 tools UI Review
For Mandriva Linux 2007, we would like to detect and correct as much as possible UI glitchs in Mandriva tools. UI glitch is not feature bug : it doesn't prevent you to perform an action.
This page is there to collect all UI glitches which are currently present in Mandriva Linux tools (except for menudrake which will be deprecated for 2007) as they exist in cooker (please, don't report blindly with tests from Mandriva Linux 2006 as UI might have changed). Don't post bug report using bugzilla (at least for now) for those glitches, since there might be a lot of glitches to analyse and prioritize.
This process is not an real UI review (as done for instance by GNOME Usuability team on GNOME tools) : it isn't there to report all HIG layout violations or to check full conformance to HIG.
Most tools can be run embedded in Mandriva Linux Control Center (MCC) or as standalone applications. Please test embedded mode mainly, since it is the most common use case, except for RPMDrake which is also available directly using start menu.
Below you will see some points in strike-out font: this means it is already done, invalid, assigned or dismissed. I dont know which, someone else needs to explain here...
[edit] drakxtools application framework
- rule of thumb : never, ever, block UI refresh while doing task intensive work (use another thread, process, glib mainloop)
- popup dialog are often missing _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG hint
- suggestion : use gtk stock icons when running under GNOME (not a problem under KDE since icons are disabled by xsettings-kde)
- add space between cancel and help in wizard
- whenever possible, use status bar instead of popup
[edit] urpmi
no blank lines between lines of text : useless. (
Bug #16742) (VincentPanel)- hitting ctrl+c should stop curl download ( Bug #15362 )
- the urpmi --v option in fact is not very verbose and therefore not very helpful when trying to trouble-shoot
- urpmi shows the size and progress during a download but then overwrites it immediately afterwards in the preparation/install phase, so that information is lost. Why not insert a linebreak and continue below so we can examine the trace afterwards and learn more about what urpmi was doing?
[edit] MCC
- text in about header is truncated, email addresses should be removed from about
- embedded applications can have an ugly border inside the MCC window
- can't use keyboard to move between tabs ( Bug #21465) (VincentPanel)
- make arrow keys work while moving between wizards ( Bug #16651) (VincentPanel)
- focus dotted square should surround both text and icon. The tab key shouldn't switch between text and Icon. ( Bug #16651) (VincentPanel)
- mouse cursor shouldn't be a hand when being over the icons and not a hand over tabs on the left ( Bug #16651) (VincentPanel)
- "Change the screen resolution" should be renamed to "Change the default screen resolution" as users can set their own resolution. (VincentPanel)
- issues with OK / Cancel button order, whether they are started in KDE or GNOME. Not sure which solution is best (follow desktop consistency and swap or always use same order).
- entire zone between text and icon isn't click aware, causing bugs Bug #15565 (old), Bug #23185 (VincentPanel)
- move "send hardware list" from menu to a specific icon action (in hardware section)
- focus dotted square shouldn't disappear when mouse is over ( Bug #16651) (VincentPanel)
[edit] done
adding a new profile is only available through Profile menu entry. there should be a icon to do that in the main interfaceI know many officials at Mandriva don't agree, but many users prefer to see the names of the applications next to the icons, not only the short description (DickGevers) (+1 VincentPanel)drakedm and drakxservices belongs to the "startup" category rather than "system" category (VincentPanel)the "expert" mode is useless : just drop it (VincentPanel)the "online administration" tab is useless. Either put rfbdrake in another tab or create a sshdrake or add a webmin link. (VincentPanel)"Screen resolution" has nothing to do with "hardware" : put it in "system" or "boot" (VincentPanel)
[edit] Rpmdrake
- rename "please wait" title for dialog with application name in it. Replacing it with a progress bar at startup would be even better.
- initial window is too small when embedded in MCC
- when running rpmdrake the first time in MCC, question should be rephrased to avoid "Yes/No" answer and use "Ok / Cancel" instead
- "loading application list" should be centered in the window (not top/left) and should be modal / child of main window.
- search button should be disabled until some text is written in entry
- install/delete button should be disabled until some package are selected. There is no need to do a popup to output an error (this particular error popup is not modal BTW)
- interface freeze when updating package list + all widgets are not displaying clock cursor
- dependency broken popup is not modal nor a dialog
- more info (in dependency popup) shouldn't close its parent dialog when displayed
- replace "OK" by "Close" when OK is only used to close window
- all dependencies should be listed in the "dependencies" error popup, instead of '...' with a scrollbar
- edit-source-urpm main screen contain many buttons ( Bug #14439) and there is not enough space between them
- edit-source-urpm use question mark in list title
- when selecting to show packages sorted by update media, fix that when trying to "unfold" a medium by clicking on the arrow the result is not that all packages from that medium are immediately selected (DickGevers)
- limit the selection of the package to the exact square box to avoid to select a complete group when you miss the triangle. By the way, is it usefull to be able to select a complete group ?
- MandrivaUpdate : don't use a popup window to say "There are no updates", but write that directly in the main window
- Use only one window to show installation progress : show everything in it (with possibility to see detail and history) : preparation, download, install, questions... I just tried the update installer in Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and there is no comparison possible in terms of UI : it's clean, yet allow to see the details. Just what's needed.
- MandrivaUpdate : don't let the tool be confused by packages without "importance" field filled ( Bug #16179 )
- The 'Edit' command for URPMI media sources allows to change URL but not the _name_ to display. So its common to end-up with lists like Cooker2007-1,2,3...18 etc. It should be possible to allow renaming?
- use clock mouse cursor when an action (check a package which needs to compute dependencies) takes more than 100ms and set status accordingly
[edit] done
when no package are selected (only a tree node) and "full information" is selected, "description is not available for this package" shouldn't be displayed
[edit] not UI bug
- clicking No to initial popup at startup will cause "unexpected error" in MCC
- cancel button should stop curl download ( Bug #15362 )
- decrease response time when msec is running (DickGevers) ( Bug #12817 )
[edit] Net_applet
[edit] not UI bug
- net_applet exits when tray icon container is removed (ok, this is a real bug ;)
[edit] invalid
- net_applet should load into the user's system tray and viewable/hideable there instead of just running invisibly in the background
- net_applet do not bring up to date the list of the access point
[edit] Drakclock
- there is no explanation of the choice between having the hardware clock set to universal or local time. Perhaps add a tool tip to say that you need to set to local time if you are going to dual-boot with windows and that otherwise universal time is preferable?
- No explanation offered for what is ntsp (Network Time Server Protocol) and why you should care
[edit] done
resizing drakconf at the minimal size will completely mess up drakclock layout ( overlapping buttons, ... )
[edit] Drakbackup
- when configuring backup on disk ( in wizard mode ), the text doesn't start at the same column ( incorrect left alignment ) and button size for user selection is incorrect
- when configuring backup by network, the checkbox to remember the password is on the same line that the password label. It should under the label with a little gap
- when doing the backup to a tape, a popup is used and the parent window doesn't refresh. Maybe the popup should be avoid
- do not use icons in menu (consistency with other tools)
[edit] done
when launched inside drakconf, you have 2 menus : drakconf one and drakbackup one. drakbackup menu shoulod replace drakconf menu
[edit] Drakfont
- No visible separation between the application list and the dialog summary in options "dialog"
- Allow to uninstall fonts one by one and not only uninstalling a whole directory ( Bug #23348 )
- Install dialog stays open when the selected fonts have been installed ( Bug #23350 )
[edit] done
when clicking on the "options" button, there's a 1 in the list of application support
[edit] not ui
- Don't crash ;) ( Bug #23344, Bug #23346 )
- Refresh the list after importing/uninstalling fonts ( Bug #15533 )
[edit] Drakhosts
- there's a ":" in the list title for the computer name.
- disable remove / modify buttons if no line is selected
- remove "quit" button when running in MCC
[edit] Draklog
- when looking for a text in log files, a popup is dislpay to show the progression but the parent window is not redrawn/refresh.
- search button is too wide
- save dialog size is incorrect (too small)
- task ordering (what needs to be filled to use the application) is not explicit enough (UI too crowded)
[edit] Drakconnect
- rename "Alter miscellaneous internet settings" : what's beyond is a mystery to me unless I click on it (VincentPanel)
- All the fields on the wifi page are just plain text entry boxes; this could actually be considered several UI bugs (each field needs to be reconsidered by its type). The two most annoying are mode and password. Mode should be a pulldown menu or something else that presents valid entries and restricts you to them. The password field should be separated to two controls: password type selector and text field for the actual password. (The mode field is covered Bug #17869.)
[edit] done
- in manage mode (--skip-wizard ), if you resized drakconf to the minimal size, gateway label and input field will overllaped "Ok" buttons
- the same for DHCP options
- When installing a wifi which need madwifi, drakconnect window will be blank and you will have a popup concerning the package installation. It should be interesting to have a message saying which packages are going to be installed, and remove the popup and see the progression directly in drakconnect window
when installing a dkms package there's no way to know if something goes wrong. There's doesn't seems to have output in drakxtools log, no progression information and I'm suspecting that there will have no way to detect if something goes wrong for example during the compilation.
[edit] Draknfs
[edit] done
when launched inside drakconf, there's 2 menu bars
[edit] Drakperm
- the description text at the top doesn't use all window space. It's always 4 lines and not aligned correctly).
- the security level reminder is center aligned. Maybe it should be left aligned ( and right aligned for RTL languages ).
- the text proposing to select the permissions to view/edit should be placed in front on the combox box and not at the top
[edit] Printerdrake
- the popup master ! when launched, it open at least 3 differents popup ( one to read printer configuration, one to detect new printers and one to eventually installed needed packages ). If there's packages to install a forth popup is displayed
- when using network printer autodetect, printerdrake UI is frozen. Please not there's one more popup. There's also no way to stop the scan.
- When adding a custom network printer, the GUI is frozen during a moment ( maybe during snmp queries ) and a popup is displayed to show the detected printer. The popup may be avoided.
- After the previous step 2 popups are displayed ( reading printers configuration, configuring printer )
- before the printer drivers list is displayed the GUI is frozen
- When configuring CUPS, the information text takes a lot of space (many white space at the bottom that can't be reduced )
- When configuring CUPS, if you resize the window, you will have scrollbars.
- When configuring CUPS, the sentences concerning printer sharing and printer browsing are too long ( at least in french )
- After configuring CUPS, clicking on "Ok" will open a popup dialog
- No "cancel" button for CUPS configuration
- When configuring "automatic configuration" features, there's scrollbar for the content of the window. The sentences are too long or at least should broken on several lines
- No "cancel" button for "automatic configuration"
[edit] Drakroam
- Doesn't really give any feedback to the user about if it was able to connect, what it is doing now etc.
[edit] Draksec
- draksec may accept incorrect values ( text instead of numbers, etc ... ) (can't find where there is a problem ...)
- make descriptions clearer (DickGevers) Bug #7314
[edit] Draksplash
- when launching draksplash editor, it will close the embedded window in drakconf ( which could make you think it crash )
[edit] Localedrake
- At the end of the wizard, an AFFIRMATION says that "changes will be done only after logout". Answering yes or no to this affirmation will directly logout or not the user (if it's possible). It should just changed to a normal page with the warning and then a later question asking "Logout now?", two radio buttons are available : "yes" and "no", the default being "no" or the previous answer of the user.
- If I select SCIM as input method, a warning suggest me to install "scim, scim-m17n, scim-tables". It should not appear if those packages are already installed, and if not, it should ask me if I want to install them now (and ask for the root password...).
[edit] done
To change the "input method", it's necessary to select "Other countries". It should be always displayed, at the very bottom.Make clear to a new user what is the meaning/purpose of "input methods" (DickGevers)
[edit] XFdrake
[edit] done
Create the possibility to test also when embedded in MCC with X running; not only when X not running (DickGevers) Bug #18792
[edit] Userdrake
[edit] done
When adding a new user add nice defaults for various types of computer / clear explanations what groups users should/should not be added to (DickGevers) Bug #21142
[edit] Diskdrake
- radio buttons are not objecs that user would double click intuitively ( Bug #19847)
[edit] Drakboot
- use margins
- center window and replace ok by next on first screen
- Under Advanced Bootloader options should be an option, when you choose to remove a Lilo menu item, to uninstall/remove the corresponding item
[edit] not ui bug
- On my Cooker, two kernels recently installed and then removed are still in my Bootloader configuration GUI. I'm not sure whether the uninstall failed but just in case, Lilo should not have redundant or invalid entries for missing kernels
[edit] Drakgw
(does it work at all ?)
- In this wizard the user is prompted to use/install postfix or sendmail with no explanation as to the pros/cons of each and not even a suggested default. Pls default to sendmail (better for home user) and explain what it does
[edit] Harddrake
- remove border and use bold text instead for frames
- Buttons labels "Configure module" and "Run config tool" are unappropriate : no one really see what's beyond unless one click on them (especially in the french translation of these buttons). (VincentPanel) (+1 DickGevers) ( compare Bug #16678 )
- No way to quit this tool except by clicking on the window "close" box
- Drakwizards are inconsistent in having a close/cancel button sometimes and other times no buttons, you have hit the window close button... UI should be consistent and try to always have Ok/Cancel/Close buttons
- When drivers not found eg. for a winmodem (whether supported or not) it should be messaged what you can do to get one, not leave the user guessing (VincentPanel)
[edit] Drakfirewall
- make possible to customize allowed outgoing services i.e. ftp, http, ssh, smb
[edit] done
Make possible to have in expert mode for example the list of server an their associated ports to be left open.Make a table for specific ports to open using the following colums : rules (1, 2 ,3 , ...); Start port; End port; Type (TCP/UDP); Note
[edit] Keyboardrake
- remove final dot at end of description
- use smaller font
- text should be left aligned
[edit] Mousedrake
- remove final dot at end of description
- use smaller font
- text should be left aligned
[edit] not ui bug
- Is there an available option for extra mouse-buttons? for moving the cursor to default buttons in a dialog? for measuring travel mileage, for double-click
speed, etc?
[edit] Drakproxy
- align "use http for https"
[edit] Draksambashare
- cancel / ok button
- initial search should be done automatically
- missing status (no share, etc..)
[edit] Drakscanner
- when launching drakscanner a popup is displayed. A second one is also displayed is some packages need to be installed.
[edit] Draksound
- size for some driver text is too wide
- missing play a sound button (see Fedora initial boot)
- driver choice vs normal interface => should use advanced for "wording"
[edit] done
The "help" window contains very valuable commands to type in a terminal but they are not selectable, therefore it's impossible to copy-paste them.
[edit] Drakups
- initial "install nut-server" badly sized in MCC
- After having configured a UPS device, a popup is displayed saying that user support is not available. Do we really need a popup. Please also note that this popup is using a gtk stock icon.
- After having validate the previous window, drakups main window will stay blank before leaving quitting.
[edit] Drakxservices
- Instead of checkboxes that start/stop/run on demand make it a combo dropdown that offers the above three choices _plus_ option to remove/uninstall/disable service
- Pop-up help is nice but not enough -- provide a link to man or info pages
- Better translation of the services (Screen)
[edit] Drakbootcd
[edit] done
A GUI with which to generate a bootable CD for currently running kernel or another kernel; available for emergency use (DickGevers) Bug #15973
[edit] Invictus
- apply/quit button position in MCC
- remove border
