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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Why I don't stay involved
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2002-06-28 20:52:45
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On June 28, 2002 02:03 pm, Robert Watkins wrote:
> Past attempts at initiating true Usability
> discussions have failed.

hrm... i just looked up on lists.kde.org your postings to kde-usability (in 
august and september of last year) and the one real thread / issue you 
brought up was discussed seriously and IIRC the result was that it was indeed 
decided that usability reports need to be more than just lists of bugs.

or perhaps i've just missed these attempts at "true Usability discussions" ... 
can you point me in the right direction here?

> I would be encouraged if I were to see a majority
> of the discussion centered around topics like
> "Testing prototypes remotely",

this was discussed quite some time back, there was going to be some web 
infrastructure put in place. it has never materialized.

> "Prototype creation tools"

e.g. Designer?

> "Developing Usability Studies",

this, too, was discussed and we even ended up with a DTD for final 
presentation along with quite a bit of information on how to conduct said 
studies. however, the website which is used to house these usability studies 
is utterly broken which has led to a discouragement of reports on the part of 
those who would write them.

now, there is probably much more to discuss on this topic such as how to do 
usability studies with live users as opposed to self-directed examination. i 
suppose first we could do with finding someone who has the time and the live 
users to test.

> "Interpreting Usability Studies"

how about first "having usability studies"

> "Strategic plans for Usability in KDE" etc.

feel free to suggest some =)

> I keep poking my head in to see how things are
> going. The path ahead for creating a complete
> Usability group through this discussion board is
> a daunting task, of which, I have neither the
> time nor energy to devote to make this the
> rewarding experience it can be.

you don't have to shoulder the burden of being some Usability Messiah. but you 
could contribute one or two small things here or there as you did last fall. 
more people doing exactly that makes a better project. less people doing 
exactly that makes it a lesser project. 

> I realize that the tone of this letter can be
> seen as "This sucks and I won't help to fix it",
> but that would be an oversimplification.

while i appreciate you taking the time to point out things that concern you, i 
can't help but wonder what you may have produced had you actually spent the 
same amount of time addressing some usability issue(s) in KDE as opposed to 
complaining with lengthy emails about how crappy the project is.

> point is that I don't believe this discussion
> group focues enough on Usability as I, and many
> others, know it to be.

well, here is how i've been operating, personally:

 o pick something to concentrate on, analyze it, put analysis out for comment, 
iterate a few times, fix/implement as many conclusions as possible

 o respond to others putting up analysis for comment

 o try not to (and often fail ;) to reply to people who are not talking about 
practical usability issues (e.g. this email)

 o be the mean ogre when someone starts posting bug lists or endless 
philosophical wanderings

currently, i'm puttering away on TOM as a usable adjunct to the KMenu. that 
entire project is usability based: how to make an application menu usable. 
this has included such things as size of menu items, ease of adding/removing 
items, naming of items, ordering and positioning of items, etc... (btw, i've 
been sick for the past couple weeks which is why i've been rather scarce)

but perhaps i'm completely off-base. please show me the error of my ways so i, 
and others on this list, can do better.

- -- 
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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