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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: embedded viewer vs external program
From:       "Manuel Amador (Rudd-O)" <amadorm () usm ! edu ! ec>
Date:       2003-02-27 17:36:32
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>
>
>So this really isn't about usability at all, is it?  If your only arguments 
>are
>
>1. an alleged majority (which will always be misleading because those who 
>like the current behavior have no reason to speak up)
>
Yes, I'm alleging that a majority doesn't work according to the 
konqueror's current way.  It's pretty evident that I'm stating something 
extremely true with 0.9 confidence.  All windows users and mac users 
DON'T work according to the konqueror's current way.  That's more than 
80% of the desktop using population.  Most surely, newcomers to the 
computing field in general will expect that to be true.  It's behavior 
depicted even on *movies*.  It's only natural to expect new KDE users to 
be surprised by Konqueror's default behavior.

>
>2. other OSes do it a different way
>
>then usability isn't even being discussed here.
>
Well,  I'll admit that I'd have lotsa happiness by having a preference 
default to the way I like.  But so would you.  Or are you. ;-)

Nevertheless, it IS usability.  The principle of least surprise.  It's 
one of the tenets of usability.

We're discussing two subtly different things here:
1. pure "scientific" usability, e.g., is Konqueror's default behavior is 
more or less usable.  This has been proven less usable by the Sun study, 
and requires some changes (currently being discussed with screenshots 
and all here) to make it more usable.
2. environmental "social" usability, e.g. newcomers to the KDE desktop 
will be surprised to find out that Konqueror didn't do what they expected.

All in all, it's two discrete surprises:
"Hey, why did the file list change to this gizmo showing me (text|couple 
buttons|image)?"
"Hey, I'm viewing the file, why can't I change it no matter how much I 
(type|click)?"

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