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From: "hyatt@mozilla" <rssfeeds@spamassassin.taint.org>
Subject: Usability Problems with Mozilla
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:27:42 -0000
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URL: http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/#85409355
Date: Not supplied

Blake blogs[1] about how mpt[2] wants Mozilla to look just like MSIE. I have to 
admit, the evidence is pretty compelling. I recall someone asking me, "Do you 
really agree with mpt's Top 10 list? He's quoted you at the top of the list!"

Do I agree that those ten items mpt mentions are the top ten problems? Of 
course not. No two people will have the same top ten problems. Also keep in 
mind that mpt and I can agree that something is a problem without necessarily 
agreeing on the solution to the problem. Maybe we have different ideas 
regarding how to solve a particular issue, but we at least both believe it is 
an issue that needs to be addressed. That's something.

To cover the list specifically:


- Navigator chrome structure - While I don't necessarily agree with mpt's 
proposed default configuration, I do agree that the chrome structure is 
painfully restrictive, and that customizable toolbars need to be implemented in 
order for us to acquire the flexibility to deal with this problem.

- Speed - can't argue with this, except to say that cutting out a lot of the 
useless UI and features from the chrome helps substantially. Reduce bloat, gain 
speed.

- Text editing - if you use Chimera on the Mac, you'll see that the textfield 
widget is easily the most painful part of the entire application. It's buggy, 
slow, misbehaves, and doesn't edit the way you'd expect. This is IMO Chimera's 
top usability problem.

- Message display - Yes. No argument here.

- Search - Yeah, it's a mess. Don't know if it would be in my top ten, but it's 
a mess.

- Menu structure - This gets back to my blog about how the apps should be 
separated. The menu structure has been complicated in order to deal with 
multiple applications. A clean separation naturally simplifies the menus (e.g., 
you can eliminate the New submenu easily).

- Migration - A problem, but IMO not one of the top ten facing Mozilla.

- Context menus - mpt complains about two-click context menus, and yet, the OS 
default on Win32 (overwhelmingly) is to bring up a context menu on a mouse up. 
If you don't like it, complain about Win32, but don't cite this as a Mozilla 
usability problem when we're following the conventions of the operating system. 
(We simply listen for the WM_CONTEXTMENU message. That message fires when Win32 
wants to fire it.)

- Validation - Err, no. Not a usability problem. To the average bear, this is 
completely irrelevant.

- Preferences - IMO this should be much higher on the list. Preferences are a 
tangled pathetic mess. Again, separating prefs for individual apps into unique 
dialogs would simplify things a great deal, but we should also remove nearly 
half the preferences that exist from the GUI. Mozilla is ridiculously 
overconfigurable.



[1] http://www.blakeross.com/archives/2002_08_18_index.html#80418641
[2] http://mpt.phrasewise.com


