[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE 3.0.2 Usability Study - First Steps
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2002-07-19 3:42:35
[Download RAW message or body]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Thursday 18 July 2002 10:57, Sebastien Biot wrote:
> 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.

> If that means integrating
> inherited behaviors, even theoretically inferior behaviors, then so
> be it.

these two statements are at odds with each other.

you either want to create the best desktop environment out there that does 
great things for the user, or you want to copy the inferior but familiar 
parts[1]of what's already out there. take your pick. 

you can't do both at the same time. you can compromise between the two 
somewhere, but every time you pick an inferior way of doing something because 
you think new users  will already be familiar with things that way (ignoring 
non-new users?) you sacrifice some of the "best desktop environment" goal, 
and vice versa. sometimes making right decisions mean people will have to 
learn new things.[2] 

instead of saying "people have to learn these new things!" which is pretty 
obvious and doesn't require any testing what-so-ever to figure out, we should 
be asking:

   "how do people deal with learning the KDE way of doing things?"

who knows, maybe despite the fact that they have to rewire a neuronal pathway 
or two, they may actually end up with real long-term benefits from that new 
behaviour.



[1] note that this has nothing to do with being similar to other systems where 
it makes sense, just where the famliiarity endows KDE with inferior 
mechanisms.

[2] what i personally find this amazingly hard to understand is that KDE is 
very similar to Windows, Mac and other systems in various ways.  virtually 
everywhere it tends to deviate, there are those who disagree with that 
difference. often quite vocally. if you are truly interested in marketing 
aspects (which this topic unfortunately seems to revolve around) you might 
want to think about the effects of not differentiating at all.

- -- 
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)

iD8DBQE9N4qs1rcusafx20MRAnbXAJ9hZOxidNCynExZPts1n0KPy8e79gCeJwy/
igALOObD4e6pmZj6K4IFB9Q=
=Z08Y
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

_______________________________________________
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability@mail.kde.org
http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]