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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    KDE Human Computer Interaction
From:       "Markus Holzem" <markus () holzem ! de>
Date:       1999-07-16 9:28:24
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All the discussions about

  * Self scaling environment
  * Linux for the masses (and the experts)
  * Inovative desktop

come back to the one basic question:

  How is a user supposed to interact with the desktop
  environment KDE?

Basic questions to be unified:

  What is the easiest way to start an application?
  How do I manage my documents?
  How do I get access to the internet?
  How do I get help?
  How do I (de)install software?
  How do I configure my system to suit me?

Make these things easy, transparent and consistent, and
the beginner will feel comfortable.

Mixed with these questions is to solve:

  How does a KDE application look and feel?

and then apply the defined look and feel consistently to
all existing and new applications of KDE.

This questions don't depend on whether the user is a
beginner or an expert. Even an expert is happier with
a system where he knows the answers to the questions
above and they are everywhere answered the same way.

Markus

PS: I'm not sure whether everyone knows what the
term usability means. Usability is a mixture of five
attributes:

  * Easy to learn
  * Efficient to use
  * Easy to remember
  * Few errors
  * Subjectively pleasing

There is usually no best of all: you have to trade-off
between the different attributes to get the best average. A
common example is, that to avoid catastrophic errors (e.g.
delete file) you have to decrease efficiency (e.g. "Are you
sure?"-dialog). Sometimes configurability can help, sometimes
not.

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