On 1/29/07, Alan Horkan <horkana@...3...> wrote:
Isn't there a risk that beginners will see the layer dropdown in the status bar and wonder why it doesn't do more? There no affordance, nothing leading user from the dropdown to the full dialog, it may well trap a few unwary users.
It's not going to trap you until you have at least two layers. And you can't get the second layer except by going to the perfectly visible Layers menu and choosing "Add layer". And once you're in that menu, you see the "Layers" command opening the full-fledged dialog. So, I don't think an entrapment is likely to happen here.
do simple layer operations without opening the layers dialog.
If you can accept layers are a feature likely to be used by more advanced users wouldn't they very quickly want more than the dropdown provides and just use the keyboard shortcut to quickly pop open the dialog and use it instead?
Not at all. It doesn't follow. If a user is "advanced" it does not mean he will always choose the most "advanced" way to do what he needs to be done. He would likely prefer the most _convenient_ way instead. And for a subset of layer operations, the statusbar widget is often more convenient simply because it's always there in the predictable place.