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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE 3.0.2 Usability Study - First Steps
From:       Sebastien Biot <seb () viralata ! net>
Date:       2002-07-19 4:57:43
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I'm very glad to see that you guys are finding this first study 
interesting. It's very encouraging. Simon (Edwards) asked if it could 
be put on usability.kde.org. The answer is yes of course.

About the test participants:
Test participants were between 20 and 55 years old with education 
levels ranging from high school diploma to PhD. All of them had in 
common at least 2 years of day-to-day experience with computers (read 
familiarity with Windows & MS Office for the most part). Only one had 
a background in Engineering/Computer Science. None of them had any 
meaningful experience with computing environments other than Windows.

About the single-click/double-click issue:
Like most of you I have a personal preference; I'm a double-click guy 
(this sounds a bit dirty :). I cannot say though that I know for 
certain what KDE should do about this issue since I don't believe 
that double-clicking is intrinsically better than single-clicking.
However, I would argue that
 1) people are generally more accustomed to double-clicking,
 2) adopting common interface standards facilitates learning, and
 3) in an environment with a reputation for complexity (Unix) 
following this kind of de facto standard would reassure new or 
potential users. (Remember the commotion caused by the clipboard's 
behavior a few months ago!)
In other words, I'd rather have people say "KDE is very easy to get 
used to and it has nifty customization options like active 
single-clicking" rather than "KDE was too weird; I gave up." 
Single-click fans could still enable active single-clicks anyway.

I'll try to get more user feedback on this issue with the next test.

Generally speaking, I think we have to accept that a lot of the 
feedback or data we'll get from usability studies will come from what 
people have come to expect from Windows or MacOS. This will 
unfortunately include bad habits they will have picked up from these 
OSes. We all want to make KDE the best desktop environment out there, 
one that truly empowers people, makes them more creative and more 
productive. To do this, we must make working with KDE as easy and fun 
as possible and get out of the user's way. If that means integrating 
inherited behaviors, even theoretically inferior behaviors, then so 
be it. Correct behavior for the sake of correct behavior is like 
technology for the sake of technology, it's senseless. And as my 
mother always says: "Better is the enemy of good."

Seb
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