[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Interesting interview with UI designer Jef Raskin
From:       Rene Horn <ndogg () geekhead ! org>
Date:       2002-03-02 16:28:48
[Download RAW message or body]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Saturday 02 March 2002 08:19 am, Emerald Arcana wrote:
> From the article:
> ~~
> Jef: I remember one client of mine who boasted about his customizable
> desktop and how he never had to reboot his software. I set the system font
> to red and the background to red. You couldn't see a thing. He spent a few
> minutes trying to find and open the now-invisible menus that would let him
> change one of the colors.
>
> He had to reboot. His system was good in that it automatically saved the
> user preferences, so it came up red on red. He had not only to reboot, but
> to reload the software, losing all his demo data.
> ~~
>
> What a bastard!  This has to be one of the meanest thing I've read in a
> long time.  Is he saying that if no one was allowed to customize options,
> then stuff like this wouldn't happen?
>
> Back to Usability.  The guy has a point... yes.  Obviously skins that
> change stuff beyond recognition are not good.  Inconsistency is not good
> (which is why we're sticking for toolbar menus in the right order, etc). 
> Skins aren't the best thing in the world: I usually don't skin my
> applications, and I generally don't think that most KDE apps should
> implement skinning code. NoAtun for a while had this odd UI that no one
> could understand due to skins (I don't know if it still does because it
> doesn't run on my sytem).  But if they already have skinning code... well.
>
> As far as the red-on-red stuff goes, maybe there can be a command-line
> script (maybe NCurses-based) or a "bare-bones uncustomizable" recovery
> application that rolls back a "validated" version of your KDE config files.
>  That way, if you screw anything up, you can restore it easily. 
> Alternately, you could also (perhaps) use it similar to a "configuration
> manager" if you're inclined to want to use different configuration settings
> for KDE.... but its primary function would be a Config File Recovery Agent.
>
> Okay.  I'm going to send this to myself to make a note....
>
> BTW, If anyone's hopped onto the Talkback board, there's a whole schpeil of
> angry responses about this article.
I have to agree that the guy was being bastardly.  I also like the idea of an 
interface that can be brought up in some sort of fail-safe-session-style so 
that the person can roll back any change he/she made that make things 
unreadable.

My thinking on the article goes like this, what if a person is color blind?  
The default colors may be in a manner such that it would make it hard for the 
person to read.  Should we neglect that person just because the majority of 
people aren't color blind?
- -- 
Alternate email addresses: hornr18@uwosh.edu, hawkdogg@whoever.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE8gP3FZ99F7WbWfQARArjEAJ9rp/QKPkfRdfTfv9Oww25MzqvE7wCgpT49
4rWz1L2WH/bggAgeLUFMUHs=
=g7m0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________________
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability@mail.kde.org
http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]