A really good article on software usability

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

David G. Miller wrote:
> "Mikkel L. Ellertson" <mikkel at infinity-ltd.com> wrote:
> 
>> David G. Miller wrote:
>>> A glaring example of this is the Thunderbird prompt as to whether images
>>> should be displayed.  A "learn" function (e.g., "Always display e-mail
>>> images from this sender?") would be wonderful.  Instead, everyday I
>>> have to click "Display images" in order to read my "Daily Dilbert" as
>>> well as several other e-mails.
>>>
>> A quick fix for this is to put the sender in your address book, and
>> then enable "Allow remote images if the sender is in my Personal
>> Address Book" in
>> Preferences --> Privacy --> General. (The same tab that has the
>> check box to block loading of remote images.)
>>
>> Mikkel
> Thanks for the tip.  While that will work, somehow I don't think of
> editing my personal address book when it comes to allowing images from a
> particular sender.  That an obscure way to allow something like this
> exists goes a long way to the point of the original article: Linux apps
> could be a lot more user friendly (admittedly, the author of the article
> could have come up with better examples).
> 
I would not classify this as an obscure way to handle it - it is in
the Privacy section as part of the remote image handling options. I
am not sure, but I think the allow from people in your personal
address book is the default setting. It is a reasonable default
setting for most people. What I think would be nice is if there were
an extension that would allow you to right click on Show Images to
let you tell it to always allow images from this site. I would not
want it to learn the sites automatically, but that could be an
option for people that want it.

I am not sure that enough people would use it for it to be part of
the base program. That is the nice things about Thunderbird/Firefox
extensions - you can add the features you need without the main
program getting bloated with features that most people would not
use. The only drawback is finding the features you want to add, and
the fact that you can not just click on a Thunderbird extension on
the web page and have it installed, like you can the Firefox extensions.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
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