I think this is really the point where we should move from speculation to actual research. Even without running the new UI, we can get inexperienced users in front of a computer and ask them "If you wanted to swap out the application launcher for a different one, what would you do?". From their reactions, we can learn a whole lot.

So I'd suggest everyone in this thread to try to get maybe 3-5 people to do this (even one would be better than nothing) and then report the results here.

I asked: "Stell dir vor, du benutzt eine Desktopumgebung und hast unten eine Taskleiste mit der Ansicht wie bei Windows (mit Programmnamen und so) und du willst aber eine Superbar haben, wie bei Windows 7. Was würdest du zuerst versuchen (also anklicken, ...), um das auszuwechseln oder zu schauen ob es das gibt?"

Translation: "Imagine there's a desktop environment with a task bar like Windows (with program name, ...), but you want a Superbar like Windows 7. What would you try (e.g. click , ...) to change it or look if you are able to change it"


Bioinformatics student, female (Experienced user) :

hmm, ich würde das so erwarten: systemeinstellungen/darstellung/erscheinungsbild/taskleiste 16:11:21
oder mit rechts-klick auf die leiste

I would expect this: system settings/appearance/design/task bar
or right click on task bar

Edit:

My mother (unexperienced)

• She doesn't know, there are alternative widgets
• She is not familiar with the concept of widgets
• If she wants to change something, she right clicks on it, because she understands that the resulting menu is related to the element, she clicked on

My father (unexperienced)

• Like my mother, he doesn't know there are alternatives and 'widgets'
• Would go to system settings and look there to change a widget

I will post more results if there're any.

Very interesting results so far, thanks for performing the first tests!
The task you give to the participants seems to work very well.
So the context menu seems to be well understood in general even by inexperienced users. The situation might different for users coming from Mac OS X, but at least for Windows or Linux users it's probably quite normal to use it.
The results also indicate that it could indeed make sense to offer configuration at least for basic desktop elements like launcher or task manager in System Settings since users look there for them. We should also consider your findings in the thread on that topic.

We really should do these kinds of tests more often. They require very little effort, yet bring us very useful insights!

My first test participant (regular PC user, but quite hesitant when it comes to advanced functions, usually asks other people for help) would also right-click as her first guess.

If that didn't work, she'd click the panel config button.

Hi guys,
I think that could be interesting to add a new option in the live plasmoid switcher to provide more alternatives to the users.
We could add an option to "Search more alternatives" like when you click on "Get new widgets".
http://imgur.com/igEuu5D
When you click there, it would open a "Widgets searcher" corresponding with the search term of the alternatives widgets (For example: menu).
I have created a mock up but I'm not sure that this could be necessary.

PD: Sorry for my bad english.

edumolist wrote:Hi guys,
I think that could be interesting to add a new option in the live plasmoid switcher to provide more alternatives to the users.
We could add an option to "Search more alternatives" like when you click on "Get new widgets".
http://imgur.com/igEuu5D
When you click there, it would open a "Widgets searcher" corresponding with the search term of the alternatives widgets (For example: menu).
I have created a mock up but I'm not sure that this could be necessary.

PD: Sorry for my bad english.

Hi!
I like the idea, it totally makes sense! The problem I see is with the search term. We can never be sure which search term (if any) would find all and only relevant Plasmoids on GHNS, so results could be pretty random. Therefore I'd like to postpone this feature until we have a new add-on distribution platform (we all agree we need that) and make sure that with this platform, it will be possible to filter for specific types of Plasmoids. Then I'd love to have that feature.

P.S.: Your English is not bad at all, it's perfectly readable and understandable!

Edvanced user:
When I reed this thread I prevere the right mouse, because for me, the right mouse meens additional information. I don't know how OS X user can live without the right mouse and often I hade the problem at the web where there is no right mouse feature.

Desktop Switcher and Windows XP user:
I ask my wife, if she would look in the system settings or use the right mouse. And I get a real usefule anser.
She use Windows XP for a long time and since 1 year she use my PC with linux (Unity and KDE) and at her father she have to use Windows 7. At her mobil she use Android.

In the Windows XP time she use the system settings for each desktop setting and she find everything. At the Win7 System she don't know where the settings are now located. In Android she look at the global settings and at my pc she use nothing, because I switch so often between the DE that she is happy to find firefox and the download and movie folder.

When she look after additional settings she would look at the system settings, BUT she want a usefule grouping an organisation and she want EVERY setting in the system settings.

When she told this to me I understand that it would be usefule to have both methods, BUT to use every time the same setting.

My wish was to have the plasmoid settings in the system settings (threat viewtopic.php?f=285&t=122150) and when you use the right click, you will get to the actual plasmoid system settings where you can switch to other alternatives.