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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Kcontrol reorganisation (was Re: Control center organization/ clutter)
From:       Alistair Davidson <lord_inh () yahoo ! co ! uk>
Date:       2002-08-30 21:21:23
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On Friday 30 August 2002 18:33, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Friday 30 August 2002 05:21, Alistair Davidson wrote:
> > Personally I think the whole KControl concept is flawed, the vertical
> > list of icons to choose your control is just repeatign a mistake Apple
> > made, and corrected, in the 80s.
>
> solutions are welcome.

Heh, now you're asking for it!

I'm not a usability genius and I don't claim to have all the answers, I also 
mean no personal criticism of those involved in creating or improving 
KControl- they've done a great job for the most part and if you're going to 
repeat anyone's mistakes, you could do a lot worse than Apple's :)

The problems for me with designing a new KControl are severalfold- I lack the 
necessary information (usability tests), the necessary inspiration (I'm not 
sure what to replace it with, though I have some ideas), and the necessary 
skills (I can code but I wouldn't know where to start codign an app like 
KControl; I'm inexperienced at UI form design).

However, I do have one skill I can apply, which is my organisational 
abilities, pattern-recognition and organisation being my greatest natural 
talents (I'm one of those people who makes neat piles out of things 
compulsively :o).

So here's my solution, though I don't know that it's the sort you were 
challenging me to provide: for serious usability issues that will take 
significant [wo]manpower to resolve, we should form small task-groups of ten 
or fewer people who are prepared to put a reasonable amount of effort into 
actually getting things done.

Such a group would consist of at least one experienced KDE coder, at lest one 
experienced UI form designer, and at least one person with the ability to 
perform user-tests. They would meet on IRC once a week and use private email 
to discuss things, producing draft solutions and presenting them to the main 
list for discussion.

I'd be happy to join such a group for KControl, if there was someone who knew 
how to start coding such a thing I'd learn pretty quickly and I know plenty 
of people I could test the latest wacky ideas out on :)

Who would join me? What does everyone think of the idea?

- -- 
Alistair Davidson
Prying open your third eye since 1823
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