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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: The art of not offering customization
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2002-05-29 14:28:30
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On May 29, 2002 04:01 am, Kristian Koehntopp wrote:
> On Wed, May 29, 2002 at 02:13:02AM -0600, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > as for user levels ala nextstep, that is something that has
> > been discussed time and time again ... it is not the panacea
> > it may appear to be at first.  the interface must simply make
> > sense from the begining, allowing room for the learning curve
> > necessary when using any new system for the first time.
>
> As for the learning, considering my father: I don't think he
> does want to learn. At least not the stuff you want to teach. He
> really isn't interested into unix access permissions, nor into
> KDE styles, nor into artsd, javascript, cups setup or any such
> things.

we were talking about configuration interfaces, not file permissions or artsd. 

for an almost perfect anology, take a look at your car. think about opening 
the hood and trunk, think about the dials on the dash, think about the gas 
and brake pedals. one learns these things. one gets used to the way they 
feel. and when you get a new car, you relearn details such as where the trunk 
latch is. get used to it.

at the same time, your car manufacturer shouldn't purposefully obfuscate the 
trunk latch simply to make it more difficult for you.

if you want to use KDE and you don't like the way the colours look, you will 
have to understand at least some basics about KDE styles (e.g. they exist). 
on the flipside KDE needs to make access to the style information accessable, 
which right now it isn't. style configuration is poorly handled right now.

but if your father refuses to learn anything new, then he'll never get the 
trunk open on his new car either. forget computing.

> He wants to write letters, so he is interested into setting up
> his printer (done by Yast2, not KDE controlcenter at all -
> another failure).

if SuSe did not integrate Yast2 into the kde control center, that is their 
failure not KDEs.

> He wants to be able to read the things on his
> screen, so he wants "all that fonts somewhat larger, please". He
> wants "all that moving stuff to hold still". And "a somewhat
> less annoying color schema, not using any of these blends that
> are hard to read, something with more contrast".

this speaks largely to the fact that kde really, really needs a unified 
theming system so that we can provide single click installation of common 
theme desires such as the "ultra-plain desktop" which are valid desires but 
not suitable as defaults.

> > > There are many more obstacles for him, one of them being all the
> > > "error messages" floating by during the boot process which scare
> > > him a lot, but these do not actually belong on this list.

> This is actually a quite sane attitude. I, too, do not read boot
> messages at all. They are useless. The yellow and red summary

sorry, this is completely and utterly wrong. <-- read that twice, because i 
mean it that much! ;-)

this is exactly what i mean about "learning" what to expect from the system. 
you don't think the messages have any use, your father doesn't think the 
messages have any use; well, you're wrong. and no matter how much you feel 
otherwise, it doesn't change how wrong you are about it.

so here is what you need to learn: don't watch the boot process! or if you do, 
understand that you shouldn't get excited over it! those messages do not make 
the system any harder to use as they float by. they just don't jive with your 
personal expectations.

see, we can hide all those messages so a few new users feel better about how 
their computer starts up. but then not only do those who actually use them 
lose out, those who would like to learn lose out and when something goes 
WRONG, well, your tech support can't ask you to read what is on your screen.

you aren't comfortable with them, but it isn't the fault of the system. you 
have wrong expectations. nothing can save a system from users who expect 
something the system doesn't do and who refuse to adapt even slightly.

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