Feature #17521

Add generic names to the applications in our menu who are only "branded names"

Added by sajolida 2020-03-11 22:56:57 . Updated 2020-03-20 02:08:52 .

Status:
Confirmed
Priority:
Normal
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Target version:
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Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Code
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Description

For example Brasero, Audacity, Thunderbird doesn’t tell you anything about what these applications do.

See https://lists.autistici.org/message/20200306.181628.1d401fc7.en.html

Proposals:

  • Dasher → Dasher Text Input System
  • Brasero → Brasero CD/DVD Burner
  • Sound Juicer → Sound Juicer CD Ripper
  • Audacity → Audacity Sound Editor
  • OnionShare → OnionShare File Sharing
  • Thunderbird → Thunderbird Email Client
  • KeePassXC → KeePassXC Password Manager
  • Inkscape → Inkscape Image Editor
  • GtkHash → GtkHash Checksum Calculator

We could try to suggest these changes upstream and otherwise patch the .desktop files ourselves.

Subtasks

Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #14544: Spend software developer time on smallish UX improvements In Progress 2018-08-31
Related to Tails - Feature #17077: Consider replacing the "Applications" menu with a button to the "Activities" overview Confirmed

History

#1 Updated by sajolida 2020-03-11 22:57:09

  • related to Feature #14544: Spend software developer time on smallish UX improvements added

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2020-03-14 13:20:01

  • related to Feature #17077: Consider replacing the "Applications" menu with a button to the "Activities" overview added

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2020-03-14 13:23:51

I’ve marked this as related to Feature #17077 because the problem this solution is about:

  • only exists in the Applications menu: in the Overview, for many (most?) of these examples, typing the desired function (e.g. “burner”) yields the corresponding application (e.g. Brasero)
  • would have a slightly different solution if we used the Overview: instead of renaming apps, we could add keywords to the .desktop file (keywords are considered when searching); chances are that such a change would be much easier to upstream, in many cases, than renaming apps as proposed here.

#4 Updated by sajolida 2020-03-20 02:08:52

What we’re trying to solve here is a learnability issue: users wondering
what the heck Dasher is about. Typing “burner” in the Overview won’t
solve it.

Regarding this learnability issue, the Overview is actually doing a bit
worse than the Applications menu because the space available for the
name of each app is much smaller (less than half). See GIMP for example.

But I like having lots of “Related to” anyway :)