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List:       kde-active
Subject:    Re: "Big picture" design one release cycle ahead?
From:       David Talmage <talmage () acm ! org>
Date:       2012-10-28 23:38:35
Message-ID: 1850845.5H0ymoGHxF () facteur
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On Saturday, October 27, 2012 10:55:37 AM Bj=F6rn Balazs wrote:
> ...
> Let's get in touch with our users - try to understand what is working
> good and where improvements are needed, as part of the preparation of
> the next sprint. And after the sprint, let's again talk to them and
> see if we managed to substantially improve the perceived quality.
> ...

I'm a user. I'm also a developer by profession, so I probably fall into Ing=
e =

Wallin's category #1, the tinkerers.  Other commitments prevent me from =

getting involved in PA development.  I'm happy to be only a user and to try =

out PA and report about what works.

I chose to run PA on my 32GB 3G WeTab because 4tiitoo seems to be getting o=
ut =

of the business of tablets. I think the activites metaphor makes sense on a =

tablet for the way I want to use mine.  I don't have a use for activites =

on my desktop computer.

On my PA3 WeTab, I have three activites.

1. An activity for general web surfing and reading books. I'm currently rea=
ding =

"Version Control with Git".  On my WeTab, the PDF viewer was good enough.  =
It =

handled screen rotation correctly.  In portrait orientation, a page was alm=
ost =

as big as in a real book.  The PDF viewer wasn't especially finger-friendly=
. =

The one in PA3 is almost OK.  It needs to support a portrait view.  I like =
the =

page thumbnails.

2. An activity for e-mail, calendar, and contacts.  I use kontact-touch =

occasionally for these PIM activities. I get e-mail through an IMAP account=
.  =

I keep my calendar and contacts on a DAViCal server. This seems to be worki=
ng.  =

I like it a lot. A better soft keyboard would improve my user experience =

signficantly.

3. An activity for my trip to Berlin for Qt Developer Days.  This is =

interesting.  It's the first activity I created on PA3.  I have the map =

application in the activity and I have bookmarks in it for my hotel and the =

conference center and a place or two I want to visit.  I have some German =

language books and bookmarks for German dictionaries, the Goethe Institute, =

and a Google map.  I'm having fun with this one.


I'd like to use PA for watching movies and listening to music.  Bangarang =

crashes too easily for this.  I think it knows about only ogg media, which =
is =

fine, but I have a lot of files in the various mpeg formats (2, 3, 4) and s=
ome =

other popular but not free ones.

There are a few things I'd like to see the PA team work on immediately.  Th=
ese =

things would make PA a joy to use.

1. The PA shell must not crash.

2. The soft keyboard must work all of the time.  I've encountered plenty of =

times, particulary after booting, when I could not get the keyboard to =

display.  This is frustrating when PA is asking for the key that unlocks my =

KDE wallet.

2.a. The soft keyboard must not be tedious to use.  It's tiresome in the =

konsole application. For konsole, the addition of Esc, ctrl, and arrow keys =

would be ideal. I know that's not what the PA team thinks is important for =
the =

general user and they are probably right.

3. Better PDF/E-book reader with portrait display and the ability to annota=
te.

4. Support for all popular media types. This includes a media player that =

doesn't crash.

5. Bluetooth support.  I would hook up my BT GPS receiver and some BT =

speakers.

David Talmage

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