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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Why I don't stay involved
From:       Simon Edwards <simon () simonzone ! com>
Date:       2002-06-28 18:29:08
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On Friday 28 June 2002 16:45, Robert Watkins wrote:
> I joined this list several months ago in hopes of
> being able to contribute to OSS, Usability, KDE,
> and lots of other things.

That's odd. I've been on this list for a few months, and this is the first 
message I've seen from you... What happened? What stopped you from 
contributing? Not enough things in this project to do?

> I continue to be disappointed with the content of
> the posts on this site. Most of the issues
> identified have little or nothing to do with
> applying usability practices on applications.

I'm sorry, but where are the posts from *you*?  What issues have you 
identified, when did you apply usability practices to applications?

> Maybe I've missed the discussions where people
> talk about being involved with developers to
> discuss how to add new functionality, how to
> decide what to test, discussing how to construct
> a meaninful test, going over the results,
> agreeing to changes, and so on.

These are good ideas and someone should (hint hint) take them up and do 
something with them. But the situation right now is that there are not many 
people active in this project right now, and those that are, don't have as 
much time to spend on it as they would like to. Hell, I imagine that quite a 
few people here are already working on other OS projects at the same time. 
For most Open Source project insufficent man-power is (unfortunately) normal. 
This project is no exception.

> Usability is not something that is done after the
> product or enhancement is released, it is the
> beginning steps that describe how to implement
> the features that are going to be used.

Yes, this is true, and I think pretty much everyone on this list will agree 
with you there. But the fact remains that KDE exists today, and needs 
usability work. Doing proper design and planning work before KDE was written 
would have been nice, but that's not the situation we are in right now.

> I'd like to hear from anyone on the list that has
> comments. I doubt that there are many (if any)
> members of the list that actually bring to the
> group a background of performing Usability
> techniques from their jobs. If I'm wrong, I'd
> like to hear from you and your opinions on this.

In case my point is still not clear I'll say it again. If you want this 
project to be what you want, you have to go out there and do some work. Now, 
just looking on the web, it appears that you have the kind of skills that 
this project could really use. If you are having trouble thinking of 
something to do, just ask. Here's a few starts of the top of my head:

* A few weeks ago someone started to record everything in the KDE control 
center for analysis and redesign in the future. This cataloging could use 
finishing.

* If you can code in C++, there are plenty of things mentioned on this list 
that could use fixing in the KDE CVS.

* You could help me fix up the KDE Usability website and help make this 
project look a little bit more alive and attrack some more help.

cheers,

PS. I hope I didn't sound to offensive, but people who do nothing and then 
complain that nothing has been done really boil my blood.


-- 
Simon Edwards             | Guarddog Firewall
simon@simonzone.com       | http://www.simonzone.com/software/
Nijmegen, The Netherlands | "ZooTV? You made the right choice."


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