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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Usability and Style issues in kde-edu
From:       Scott Wheeler <scott () slackorama ! net>
Date:       2002-04-22 22:34:05
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With all of the talk about usability and such I figured this would be either 
an ideal or horrible time to bring this up.  :-)

Here's something that I sent to kde-edu-devel several days ago.  I tried to CC 
it to kde-look (twice), but it never made it through.  This is the same email 
with some small corrections.  To see more about this look at the 
kde-edu-devel archives.  

The main thing of interest to non kde-edu folks here is the talk of an 
"educational mini-style guide".  As I think many of you will agree there are 
some different usability issues (and some of the same ones that just manage 
to be ignored) and I think a style guide would be a way to address those in a 
way that would lend itself to app concistancy.

Thanks a lot!

-Scott

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: [kde-edu-devel] Usability and Style issues in KDEdu
Date: Wednesday 05:11:29 am
From: Scott Wheeler <wheeler@kde.org>
To: kde-edu-devel@kde.org
Cc: kde-look@kde.org

Ok, I've just run through all of the kde-edu apps and noted some usability
and style issues.  Note that I'm just trying to encourage conversation not
say that anything must be changed.

First a few things that I noted in general:

*) KDEdu uses a lot more splash screens than the rest of KDE.  I couldn't
find any mention of them in the style guide.  My personal opinion is that
they're not really useful, but that is *just my opinion*.  The only
exception that I noted was KStars, which takes a long time to load up (and
gives feedback during that time). The real question here is why does KDEdu
use them so much more?  Is there a good reason?  Are they useful?  I'm of
course open to a lot of opinions here.

*) Placement of credits is more visible than in any other group of KDE
applications that I've seen.  It seems that very many of the KDEdu
applications mention the author on the splash screen or in the main window.
Again, I'm just curious why KDEdu differs on this.

*) Things which are "games" should probably use a "Game" menu instead of a
"File" menu.  This seems to be the standard for things in the games module.

*) In the apps geared towards younger children it is obvious that some
elements of the style guide do not apply.  The use of more color, larger
fonts, etc. would seem to be helpful.  However, it also seems that there are
several competing ways of attempting to adapt to make the apps more useable
to kids.

The applications that seem to specifically have interfaces geared towards
youngsters are KHangMan, KMessedWords, KPercentage, KLettres and KTouch (with
the others I think "normal" KDE standards apply).  Unfortunately these all
have very different interfaces.  Some avoid tool and menu bars; some use
larger fonts; and there are very different color schemes.  I realize that
much of this is because these were written as individual apps not as "an app
in KDEdu".

However, it would seem like a goal for future apps should be adhering to some
as of yet undefined standard.  It seems like even more than in most branches
of KDE usability should be a concern.  What do you guys think about talking
with the "kde-look" guys (CC'd on this -- I hope that's the right list :-) )
about coming up with a brief KDEdu style guide?  Is anyone else interested in
something like this?  Then potentially we could try to make existing apps
adhere to this; possibly by KDE 3.2.  What do you guys think?

Since I'm feeling a little guilty suggesting style changes to apps that I
didn't help at all with, I'm willing to help with some of the conversion if
this ends up happening.

Ok, specific apps:

* Kalzium *

The main thing that I noticed here were the menu labels.  Some of the
capitalization isn't right.  Oh, great; I just checked it again and most of
this has been fixed since I tried it yesterday!  Also, looking I see the CVS
commit from Stephan Binner.  The only one that I still see is Configuration
-> Numeration -> "off".

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/standards/kde/style/basics/labels.html

Also, some of the words are spelled using German-style word combinations with
British spelling.  I believe that UK-specific spellings are supposed to be
i18n'd not in the main application.  The first thing that I see is
"Colourscheme", which should be "Color Scheme".

Also, the "Configuration" menu should probably be "Options".  Having both a
"Configuration" menu and a "Configure Kalzium..." available in the menus is
confusing.  Alternatively the items currently under "Configuration" could
probably just be moved to "Settings".

* KGeo *

Mostly great.  I think this is a really clean interface.  The first thing
that I noticed here is that the menubar icons aren't the standard icons. 
Second, the style guide says "But remember here as well: don't have actions
in the toolbar that do not exist in the menu bar!"  It would seem like it
might be good to add the toolbars' drawing functions to the menubars.  Is
KGeo using KActions?

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/standards/kde/style/toolbar/index.html

* KHangMan *

Aside from the concerns mentioned above, the thing that I noticed that seems
confusing here is the level menu.  It contains the options: Level, Easy,
Animals, Medium, Hard.  First Level is intended (I think) to be a label and
not an option and should probably be implemented as such.  Second, the option
"Animals" in a box that's otherwise about difficulty seems odd.  Should there
maybe be two boxes?  One for difficulty and one for type?  Or maybe just a
rewording of "Level" or a separator in the list.  It just seems like
"Animals" is confusing in that context.

* KVocTrain *

Style seems good; usability could be better, but I guess that will have to be
figured out later.  I actually still haven't figured out how to use it.

* KTouch *

Just two typos:  Stat -> Start, Option -> Options

* KStars *

Great!  The only thing that I noted is that I don't think the "Help" menubar 
button should be right aligned.

* FlashKard *

Perfect, of course.  :-)  I don't think I can really be objective here.

*) Most of the others, from a *quick* check looked fine.  This isn't *real*
usability testing, but more just a quick (couple of hours) check of the first
things that I saw.

*** !!! ***

Again, I'm really not trying to detract from anything in KDEdu.  I'm excited
to see how quickly things have come along.  15 apps in a few months (in
HEAD)!  We might call some of these "growing pains".

I hope this is helpful!

Cheers!

-Scott

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