-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday 17 July 2002 07:51, Sebastien Biot wrote: > Hi all, > > I posted a couple of days ago this short paper > (www.viralata.net/kde_usability/001_01.html) summarizing the results > of a usability test I conducted on KDE 3.0.2. This is the first of a > series of tests I hope to conduct this summer and fall. > > I hope you find it useful. thanks sebastien ... that's a great bit of work, i look forward to mining it for information as i work on various things ... i also hope to see more such studies from you, this one was just that good! =) some notes: the documents / home directory buttongs being the same in the file dialog has been fixed: if documents dir == home dir, only the home dir button is created and shown. as for embedded viewers, you are correct in your assessments IMO tha there are several limitations. some way of communicating immutability of the reader view needs to be created. also, here's a fun one: go to a web page that has a text file linked from it click on the text file (it opens in an embedded viewer) now enter a new url in the location bar the embedded viewer opens it up!! as one of my users said: "what did i do? all i'm seeing is code!" embedded viewers need to be marked as such and they should also be temporary (e.g. entering a new URL clears the state of the viewer?) i won't comment on the kcontrol section, since i kind of ranted on that one not too long ago. my opinion hasn't alterred since then (unfortunately) on single vs. double clicking, let me steal gratuitously from "The Humane Interface" by Raskin (who did NOT invent the mac.. *sigh* megalomaniacs everywhere): ********* Double Dyslicksia The interface technique called double clicking, that is, tapping the GID button twice within a small time window and without any significant cursor movement between the taps, as an interface technique suffers from problems. You cannot always predict what objects on the display will or will not respond to a double click, and it is not always clear what will happen if there is a response. There is no indication on displayable items that double clicking is supposed to produce a response: The functionality is invisible. The way that double clicking is used in many current interfaces, the user must remember not only which items are double clickable but also how different classes of interface features respond to this action. The first two burdens on the user could be at least partially alleviated by new screen conventions. The act of double clicking is, however, itself problematic. Double clicking requires operating a mouse button twice at the same location or at two locations in very close and, in most cases, within a short time, typically 500 msec. If the user clicks too slowly, the machine responds to two single clicks rather than to one double click. If the user jiggles hte mouse excessively between clicks, the same error occurs. If the user taps the GID button twice in too short a time period, as when trying to select text within a word while working within certain word processors, the machine considers the two taps as a double click and select the whole word. A problem arises when the user is trying to select a graphical item that can be repositioned with the GID. Because the GID is likely to move when the user is pressing the GID buttons quickly, graphical applications, instead of reading a double click, may read a drag-and-drop and change the item's positoin. Similarly, to change the text in a text box, the user may find it necessary to reposition the accidentally moved box and to make the text edit originally intended. Some of us are unaffected by dysclicksia: These lucky people never miss with the mouse; they single and double click with insouciance and panache, do not suffer from side effects of clicking, always remember what will and what will not respond to double clicking, and can shoot a flying bird with a .357-caliber revolver while driving along a twisty mountain road. But we can't assume that all users are so lucky. We must design for the dysclicksic user and remain aware of the problems inherent in using double clicks in an interface.[1] [1] The term dyscilicksia, a disease for which the only permanent cure is good design, was couned by Pam Martin (personal communicaiton 1997) ******** in other words, double clicking is bad. just because everyone else fucked it up (including mr raskin when he supposedly designed the mac) doesn't mean we should too. the real question is: how long does it take a user to adjust to single clicking? for me it took probably about a week (and i use computers a LOT) when i started using KDE in single-click mode. but i'm not your usual suspect. i am faster at some things, slower at others but almost never typical. long term study of this transition in other users would be most enlightening. - -- 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 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE9Nk1f1rcusafx20MRAhtHAKCpxCejigtJh+ozlayNggliUaqlyQCffrmm 1GMTzcF7pxpbSKxnR4XuCA4= =ou/v -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ kde-usability mailing list kde-usability@mail.kde.org http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability