GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 720786
"Customize" looks like a wizard, but acts differently
Last modified: 2016-03-31 13:22:07 UTC
Created attachment 264589 [details] Screenshot of the first problematic page This comes from bug #693840. When Boxes starts up the first time, it has a header of "Create a Box", and a left sidebar with labels for Introduction/Source Selection/Preparation/Setup/Review. It also has three wizard-like buttons on the top right: Cancel/Back/Continue. You can use those buttons to move back and forth among the labels on the left sidebar. Later, when you are creating a VM and go into its Customize option, you get something that looks pretty much exactly the same, but that is *not* a wizard. See the attached screenshot. 1. You get a new sidebar on the left, this time with Login/System/Display/Devices. 2. The items on the sidebar *are* clickable, unlike in the initial wizard. There is no corresponding set of buttons for Back/Continue. It took me a while to figure out that the sidebar's items were in fact clickable and that that is the way to switch among them. 3. The Customize step starts with the first item (Login) *not* being selected; the second one (System) is selected instead. I found it confusing that the same kind of visual representation ("steps" on the left; controls on the right) acts differently depending on whether you are in Wizard mode or in Customize mode. Finally, it was not clear at all to me that if you are in Customize mode, you need to click on the topmost-leftmost button on the header bar, which has your VM's name, to go back to actually creating the VM. I.e. it was not clear how to exit Customize mode and continue.
Since I have never seen or heard anyone else having the same complain, could it be just something personal? Most users find Boxes UI to be very intuitive, although still a lot of room for improvements. I think the only way forward here is if you (or anyone) could provide improvement ideas with mockups so we have a way to decide whether there really is something better that can satisfy everyone. I'm closing this as INVALID until that happens.