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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE 3.0.2 Usability Study - First Steps
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2002-07-18 18:09:20
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On Thursday 18 July 2002 10:43, Joseph Manojlovich wrote:
> This is the same mentality that I ran into with trying to get an option to
> remove the initial dialog box in KOffice 

why don't you just put it in your .sig? think of all the typing you could've 
saved by now. =/

> (which I have done, crudely, if anyone cares to try it out).

what aproach did you take? if it is something beyond a "don't show this dialog 
again" checkbox i'd be interested in trying it out...

> Yes, both ideas make great sense in theory,
> but ignore the habits of users. As no other popular desktop implements
> single clicking by default, nobody is expecting it when transitioning to
> KDE. And even after they understand why they get two copies of the file
> opened (because they incorrectly double clicked), they most often don't
> modify their behavior but try to change the clicking type to double.

> As Raskin also said in his book (page 20):

he is speaking to internal consistency such that what happens once happens 
everytime everywhere, thereby allowing people to learn the interface by 
creatings habits. it wasn't about catering to habits learned elsewhere, in 
fact he talks in his book about devices that try and accomodate the habits 
people pick up from other systems (and why that usually ends up resulting in 
poor designs) ... so i think you completely missed his point in that section.

to the point:

double clicking reduces the ability to form habits as one has to think about 
whether to click or double click. some of us get to the point of it being 
"natural", many (most?) never do.

> Not like any of this should be on this list anyway. Nobody has faked
> screenshots, or .ui files, or code. Therefore, this discussion is
> pointless, right? ;-)

it is quite useful because it addresses an issue that haunts the prospects of 
usability in KDE: the perverse desire to mimic the faults of other systems.

- -- 
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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