GNOME Shell User Observation: Gergely Polonkai (myself), a day in my office
User Profile
- Systems administrator and engineer
- common tasks involve handling user tickets, doing actions reacting to system monitoring tools, proactive work on several servers
- 11 years experience with both Windows and Linux desktops
User General Desktop Usage Profile
- Using GNOME on Ubuntu on a laptop (1440x900) with an additional LCD monitor attached (1280x1024)
Self-identified most-commonly used applications
Microsoft Outlook running in CrossOver Office (eagerly waiting for a stable, working version of Evolution-MAPI plugin)
- Corporate ticket handling software running in wine
- Firefox (Tabs listed below)
- Several Intranet sites (team calendar, 3-4 monitoring sites, team knowledge base)
- Personal mailing on Google Mail
- Pidgin for corporate instant messaging
- Sometimes XChat for personal communications
- Skype for corporate and personal communications
- Rhythmbox music player
- Gnome Terminal with several tabs, depending on current situation to solve
GNOME Panel Launchers
I don't really like them, thus I start everything from the menus.
Usage of Desktop
- Empty. I put all my files in folders under my home directory.
- Sometimes I create empty files on it to act as sticky notes. Sometimes I use the sticky note applet for this task
- Mostly using Alt+Tab for window switching, or the mouse wheel above the window list applet
- I keep corporate mailing constantly on the external monitor, full screen. On the other monitor, I place my browser full-screen and all the other windows sized to consume around the 1/3 of the screen
- Nautilus is set to icon view, with thumbnail creation/viewing enabled. This comes from my home computer where I usually work with pictures. Files are automatically sorted alphabetically
Task Observations
Task 1: Reacting to user tickets
When a ticket arrives in our ticketing system, it also appears as a mail. As Outlook is running constantly on the external monitor, I can see it instantly.
- Navigate to the ticket handling window with Alt+Tab or the mouse wheel
- Read the details of the ticket
- Check for possible solutions in the knowledge base if needed
- Navigate to the Gnome Terminal window, use the currently open tab, or open a new one if the old one is still in use
- Login to the mentioned server, solve the issue
- Close the Terminal tab
- Navigate back to the ticketing software and close the ticket
Task 2: Writing e-mails
Sometimes we need to communicate with other teams or with customers.
- Navigate to the Outlook window
- Click Reply All, which opens the composing window full screen on the external monitor
- Compose the mail
- Send the mail with Ctrl+Enter
Task 3: Reacting to monitoring events
Although we receive an automatically generated ticket (thus, an e-mail) about most monitoring issues, it is possible that we find something in the monitoring (e.g something gets into a "Warning" status). This time, we act proactively.
- Check the details of the issue on the monitoring site
- Check for possible solutions in the knowledge base if needed
- Navigate to the Gnome Terminal window, use the currently open tab, or open a new one if the old one is still in use
- Login to the mentioned server, solve the issue
- Close the Terminal tab
Task 4: Personal tasks
When I have some time, I take a look at my personal mails and chat windows, and some forums
- Check the notification area if Pidgin's, Skype's or XChat's notification icon is blinking
- If so, open the actual chat window and reply
- Navigate to Firefox, open a tab for my personal mailbox by middle-clicking on the bookmark toolbar's corresponding button
- Open a new tab for the desired forums, with the same method
Summary
- If the mouse is in my hand, I use it to switch between the windows by scrolling over the taskbar. Otherwise, I use Alt+Tab for window switching. I hardly ever click in background windows to raise them to the top
- I keep most of my windows at the size of 1/3 of my laptop screen. Corporate mail and Firefox is always maximized
- The desktop is never used, as it is constantly hidden by the Outlook and Firefox windows. However, it always holds a beautiful background image
- I navigate through needed applications using the menu. I hardly ever use launchers on the panel
- The notification area is a very important place, as all my chat and e-mail applications put some signs there if something happens
- When I get bored of the current music, I press the Next button of the Music Applet, thus controlling Rhythmbox (which is constantly hidden by pressing its notification icon)