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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Clipboard
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2002-08-07 17:29:29
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On Wednesday 07 August 2002 12:58, Dave Leigh wrote:
> The proposal had several aspects, the very least of which was the icons.
> Let's broaden the question to include the actual proposal: changed icons,
> changed button arrangement, and Klipper integration.

klipper-style functionality integreation is indeed a good idea, and not one 
that i have (or had) any contention with. 

> marginal), but that was before I saved this to draft and did an impromptu
> survey earlier tonight. 

thank-you =)

> The new button arrangement and icons are
> significantly easier to explain to users, and that's where the training
> benefit lies. 

unfortunately, this is not about training and "significantly easier to 
explain" is, once again, your opinion of things. to know that we'd actually 
have to get several people to explain the old and the new icons to others and 
observe their ability to do so. i'm sorry if i sound like an experimentation 
grouch, but ad-hoc and "my opinion" based usability changes create changes, 
not improvements. =)

> as to what it would show. I did do a little informal (and individual)
> training and survey of my wife and three children (ages 15, 6, and 6)
> tonight. Not at all scientific, but I did try to keep it objective. I

interesting... thanks for taking the time to do this. just to clarify:

 o you didn't use the words that actually appear in the menus/tooltips (at 
least initially) but words that you felt conveyed the meaning more 
appropriately?
 o what explanation occured prior to the identification questions? i wasn't 
clear on exactly what was said (which is vital to understanding the results; 
not word-for-word, obviously, but the jist)
 o did they identify the icons outside of an application, or were the icons in 
actual use (e.g. on a toolbar)?
 o were the icons shown in context of the menus?
 o were they asked to perform tasks with them, or did this part of the study 
go straight to identification questions?

> * Three thought the 'Move to Clipboard' action was better than 'Cut', but
> didn't have a problem with CALLING it 'Cut.' (I'm still trying to figure
> that one out.) The other understood that it was the exactly the same as
> 'Cut' * The same three thought that the 'Copy to Clipboard' icon was more
> understandable than Copy, even though it's exactly the same icon in a new
> position!

this is perhaps the most interesting find of the whole study. "Move to 
Clipboard" should be much more learnable than "Cut". "Copy" would also need 
to be changed to "Copy to Clipboard" and Paste => "Paste From Clipboard". the 
question would be whether or not users understand what this "Clipboard" 
thingy is, but then they have even less hint given the curent and terse 
Cut/Copy/Paste (which gives little opportunity to learning what they are).

the big change would be from Cut => Move to Clipboard, and that change would 
need task-testing within the whole environ to note its full impact (e.g. ask 
someone to remove some text from a kword doc and put it into an email in 
mozilla, then reverse the task, thereby bringing "Cut" and "Move to 
Clipboard" actions into juxtaposition). 

this is one of those times when it would be a nice luxury to have KDE apps as 
the only thing people run ;-)

> * All preferred the paper-as-indicator on the Clipboard icon, which is one
> part I thought would cause problems. They liked it better than greying the
> icon out,

"liked it better" or "used it and performed better"? liking is irrelevant, 
performance is everything (people are bad at juding peformance results based 
on personal preferences). this would need to be tested in a toolbar with some 
items greyed (as per the *styleguide*) with this one being an exception.

exceptions == inconsistencies, yadda yadda

but there is no reason we couldn't combine both: a greyed out paperless 
clipboard when there is nothing to paste, and a coloured papared clipboard 
when there is. this should give us the clarity of metaphore without breaking 
consistency. the only challenge there might be accomplishing it 
programmatically, as it would require changing the icon at the right time as 
opposed to simply marking it as "innactive". this may not be feasable given 
how it currently works?

> * None had a problem with the concept of multiple sheets on a clipboard,
> although the twins thought it would be better to see the pages. They don't
> type much, and use cut and paste mostly in a paint program.

*nods*

(the rest of my reply to the OT parts went privately to Dave so as not to 
waste others' time)

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler"
    - Albert Einstein
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