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

List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Usability study
From:       Mihnea Capraru <mihnea_capraru () yahoo ! de>
Date:       2004-03-26 19:26:28
Message-ID: 200403262126.28998.mihnea_capraru () yahoo ! de
[Download RAW message or body]

On Friday 26 March 2004 15:14, Mihnea Capraru wrote:
> http://www.linux-usability.de/download/usabilityreport_kde3.2.0.pdf
> (german)

This sounds indeed interesting but is there a English version somewhere?

Haven't seen an english version anywhere until now, but I could try to 
summarize it.

First their conclusions: they say kde usability has significantly improved 
since 3.1, but that mistakes have also been done in trying to improve. They 
further say that programmers can typically not understand the normal user's 
view on usability, which is quite self-understood imho as programmers tend to 
use programms more easily.

They have conducted tests on they don't say how many people and what kind of, 
and reached to the following recommendations:
1. the kcontrol menu should come back to the main start menu, as it''s now 
hidden deeply. it should be called "settings" and dwell under "all programs"
2. kfind should add the wildcard to search word by default, as lots of users 
don't know what * happens to mean and they won't understand why they can't 
locate "foo" while searching for "foo-bar"
3. further work should be done on toolbars, as icons are currently too 
difficult to find, due to their number
4. there should't be more then 5-7 buttons/menu entries in a group :-)
5. rmb menu desktop configuration uses different wording as corresponding 
kcontrol menus - they should be made consistent
6. the user should somehow be able to oversee search criteria in kfind
7. kontact components should be more closely integrated (menus and toolbars 
made more consistent)
8. when adding an all-day event t korganizer, some small space on the upper or 
lower edge should be left free such as the user can click it and add further 
events that day
9. korganizer shouldn't use orange for icons, orange is generally perceived as 
a warning sign
10. korganizer uses peculiar arrows to display some status info (event goes 
further/ starts earlier), which users mistake for buttons
11.  korganizer's left panel takes up too much space. they estimate it to 
probably take too much work to make it resizable, so they recommend putiing 
some small arrow-like buttons on the separator to do the job of hiding/
showing, or some other similar idea
12. they say test users mistake kscd's progress bar for a volume control bar, 
because it has that little "change volume" button at its left
13. when saving an image from a website, konqueror/save dialog should suggest 
the file name taken from the page itself. otherwise the unknowing user will 
give it a name without an extension, and then be unable to set it as 
wallpaper, because it will be filtered out by "show *.xyz files".
(ok now it's really weird reading this. but using an image from a webpage as 
wallpaper was one of their testcases.)
14. they complain about some things in german i18n as "Ueberwachung" for 
monitoring, say it actually has negative meaning in german. this is actually 
true (afaik, though i'm not a native german speaker and have never been to 
germany), but probably also irrelevant.

I sent this link because I knew A. Seigo was looking for ways to collect data 
and was surprised that a company did some work in this field. I really have 
no idea what their motivation was nor can I tell how to actually see the 
data :-). but maybe they are willing to submit it.

_______________________________________________
kde-usability mailing list
kde-usability@kde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability

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