Version: unknown (using KDE 3.4.2 Level "b" , SUSE 9.3 UNSUPPORTED) Compiler: gcc version 3.3.5 20050117 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux) OS: Linux (i686) release 2.6.11.4-21.8-default In the "Normal View" mode, the "Feed" list widget is placed on the left of the tab bar. The tab bar initially contains the "Article" tab with all the current articles in it. When the user opens tabs, they appear on the tab list. When a tab is clicked, the internal browser appears and the "Feed" list remains on the left. On smaller resolutions, it is common for the presence of the "Feed" list to take up enough space that the webpage cannot fit on the screen without horizontal scroll bars. This is bad for usability as the user cannot easily view their webpage without the added hassle of using scrollbars. To fix this, I suggest that the "Feed" list is moving inside the "Article" tab so that the article and feed list are contained in the same tab, and the tab list spans to whole application area. This gives more room for tabs to be opened without the tab bar horizontal scroll buttons appearing too, which is good for usability. Now, when an article tab is opened, the feed list will not be visible and the article will encompass the entire application area. This makes reading articles on smaller screens more pleasant and prevents scrolling. Hiding the feed list here is good in my opinion as the feed list is no longer relevant while you are reading articles. I had attached a screen mock-up.
Created attachment 12350 [details] What akregator looks like now (feeds not in article tab)
Created attachment 12351 [details] akregator with my suggestion (feed list inside article tab)
In addition, while you are not in the modified article tab, you could hide all the akregator related toolbar options and only show the browser ones and vice versa. This simplifies the interface more.
You're right, your change makes browsing more convenient. The horizontal scrollbars are indeed annoying. On the other hand: Akregator is not meant to be a browser, it's meant for reading the complete article where only a the title or an abstract is available in the feed, or adding comments and things like that. For further browsing, you're better off by opening the page in konqueror/any other browser. Switching to a completely different "browsing mode" with only browsing-related GUI items, could create the illusion that the user is in a browser now, and he will be annoyed that the internal browser is very limited. I think we should make the transistion between Akregator's internal browser widgets and a "real" browser easier. The "detach tab" option is well hidden (tab context menu) and the "open in external browser" in the browser context menu isn't that good either. Maybe we should add a toolbar button for "detach tab" (opening the page in an external browser and closing the internal widget). Also, having the feed list on the left makes it easy to switch to the next feed. Otherwise you have to leave "browsing mode" first by clicking the "articles" tab. I guess we should ask the usability folks for some input on this.
OK, I know everyone isn't like me but I'll run through how I typically use akregator to read my news in the morning as an usability example (I'm no expert but I've done a University level usability course). One way to measure usability is based on the number of actions (key presses, targeting icons etc.). I'll stick to keyboard shortcuts to make things simpler. 1. Open akregator. Feed list and article lists appear. 2. Press key to mark all feeds as read. 3. Press key to download all feeds. 4. Press key to select first feed in list. 5. Press key to select next article. 6. If article is interesting, press key to open it in new tab. 7. Repeat from 5 until all new interesting articles are opened. 8. Press key for next feed. 9. Repeat from 5 until all feed articles are checked. 10. Press key to open next article tab. 11. Read article by tapping page-down (and perhaps scrolling left and right if screen is too small). 12. Press key to close when done. 13. Repeat 11 until all articles are read. This is _very_ efficient and my suggested GUI tweak just means I have more browser view area to stop me wasting time playing with scrollbars (adding more time to step 11). Note that I rarely do anything but limited browsing (I might click a follow-up article link) and I probably look at about 20 articles (i.e. extra operations in the loop can add significant time). I'm aware of the detach tab option and open in external browser, but these options completely eradicate the advantages of the tabs and are awful for usability in this case. When the new browser window appears, I will first have to maximise it for a decent browser viewport to read it (waste considerable time as it involves targeting the maximise button and clicking). If I want to read another article, I then have to locate akregator on the task list, target it and click it. For the number of articles I'd want to look at, this is incredibly inefficient and I may as well just open the website homepage in konqueror and open the articles in tabs manually (it's similar to why people like Firefox's tab browsing to IE's separate windows). I can't really see how you could separate the akregator browser part and feed viewer without these disadvantages. I see what you mean by not wanting to confuse the user into thinking akregator is a fully featured browser, but my GUI suggestion wouldn't make much difference to that, it's just giving more screen space to what the users current task is. I was actually thinking a while ago that akregator could be put in the sidebar of konqueror (so you can open tabs from it), but I couldn't think how you would fit the article previewer in. I'm just thinking now that you could have a "akregator://" KIO-slave that would show the feed and article views in one tab like my screenshot and you could then use konqueror's tabs and all the other features to read articles. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that idea though but I agree that the internal browser of akregator is a bit of a hairy usability issue. However, the speed it gives me is the sole reason I use it to read news. Anyway, just my opinion. I'd be interested to know what your views are.
I won't change this in Akregator itself - for improved browsing experience, a browser plugin should be considered at a later stage.