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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Usability and open source
From:       Cristian Tibirna <ctibirna () total ! net>
Date:       2000-01-30 14:24:18
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On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, Ben Last wrote:

> will very probably go open-source later this year).  However, I do have a
> couple of other areas of expertise; usabillity and HCI (and interface design
> in general).
> So - this is a *genuine* request for your input, folks; is there a way in
> which an HCI bod can get involved via this list (plus CVS, plus whatever) in
> enhancing the usability of KDE?  Ideally I'd like my preferred *nix desktop
> to approach the Mac in terms of usability (let's ignore Apple's recent
> fallings-from-grace in that area) as fast as possible.
> Ben Last

Hey Ben,

Thanks a lot for your interest in KDE. Your offer to help is very
interesting and useful.

There is something that was intended but was never accomplished to a
satisfactory extent: analyse the HCI of present applications in KDE.

What I see you could do to help is:

1) get and install KDE-2 on your linux (KDE-1.1.2 is a closed route)

2) reserve 15' at a time and fire up, one by one, the KDE applications
from the main packages.

3) write down (then report to this list) the errors or problems or
suggestions for improvement you can come up with. Attention, there's no
use in reporting functionality bugs (e.g. "Copy commands is present but
isn't working") since KDE-2 is still in building stage and there are
enough rough cuts. Perhaps that, given the large amount of mail the main
developers have to deal with, you will want to prefix the subjects of your
reports with "ATTN! HCI ANALYSIS" or something

This would help us get a stronger idea of the improvements that are needed
in the HCI department, in addition to the nice how-to's already written by
the members of the kde-look team.

Thanks a lot for your interest


Cristian Tibirna
   tibirna@kde.org
 howtohelp@kde.org

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