This should help you trace the argumentation to cited research that is certainly not ”tone deaf”:
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
1. *Consistency and Standards*
Claim: "The 'View Options' dropdown didn't contain view options, but rather sort options, and I didn't realize it was a split button with two completely different functions."
Violation: This breaks Consistency and Standards. The user expects consistent terminology and functionality, but the dropdown name doesn't match what it actually does, leading to confusion.
2. *Visibility of System Status*
Claim: "Hidden scroll bars... hides information not only about what I can do with the GUI itself, but also about where I'm currently positioned."
Violation: Violates Visibility of System Status. Hidden scrollbars prevent the user from knowing their position in the list or file system, making it difficult to navigate.
3. *User Control and Freedom*
Claim: "I miss a button for going one level up, to the parent directory. There are buttons for going back and forward in the navigation history, but that's not the same thing."
Violation: Violates User Control and Freedom. Not having an obvious way to go up a directory removes essential control, forcing users to rely on less intuitive navigation methods.
4. *Recognition Rather Than Recall*
Claim: "It seems this editing mode can only be activated using a keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-L, which isn’t immediately apparent—or, to be frank, very logical."
Violation: Violates Recognition Rather than Recall. The user should not need to remember specific keyboard shortcuts to access common functionality. The UI should present these options visibly.
5. *Error Prevention*
Claim: "Moving windows by clicking on icons that already have a specific function feels unintuitive and introduces an unnecessary risk of misclicking."
Violation: Violates Error Prevention. The user can easily move the window unintentionally when trying to interact with icons, which increases the chance of errors.
6. *Help and Documentation*
Claim: "Searching and then browsing the built-in help for 'list view' didn’t actually help me find out how to enable the list view."
Violation: Violates Help and Documentation. The help system fails to guide users to solutions for basic tasks, which defeats its purpose.
7. *Aesthetic and Minimalist Design*
Claim: "Tooltips are either misleading, or comically uninformative and thus annoyingly distracting."
Violation: Violates Aesthetic and Minimalist Design. Tooltips should convey useful information without being intrusive. Redundant and irrelevant tooltips clutter the interface.
8. *Flexibility and Efficiency of Use*
Claim: "In Gnome Files, we’re instead given a handful of features scattered across the UI. Hidden features (accessible solely through keyboard shortcuts) can only be learned by browsing what is best described as a non-interactive menu."
Violation: Violates Flexibility and Efficiency of Use. Hidden shortcuts reduce the efficiency for experienced users and make the interface less discoverable.
9. *Match Between System and the Real World*
Claim: "Menu names and their contents are confusing, with 'View Options' actually being sort options."
Violation: Violates Match Between System and the Real World. The system should use terminology and design elements that align with user expectations, but here the names contradict their function.
10. *Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors*
Claim: "Context-clicking in the top part of the window gives spurious and unpredictable results."
Violation: Violates Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors. Inconsistent behavior in the context-click menus makes it difficult for users to understand or recover from unexpected results.