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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: An aid for usability development
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2004-07-09 23:11:12
Message-ID: 200407100011.18839.segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk
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You're on the money Frans. If you think this is bad you should sit in on 
usability discussions within some commercial projects. Most of the time it's 
quite easy - because there aren't any! You then watch the support calls flood 
in as the users grapple with confusing functionality and bad interfaces.

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 18:48:24, Frans Englich wrote:
> More specifically, I have been working on a concept dubbed KDE Usability 
> Articles, a framework for documenting usability aspects in applications, 
> general usability facts/principles, and for tackling problems specific for 
> open source development.

Good idea. However, it is all to easy to quote usability laws and techniques 
with absolutely no practical basis. That must be avoided, and we must learn 
from the mistakes of others :). If you quote usability laws and techniques, 
explain them in layman's terms with a practical example - preferably with 
KDE. Even better, if you see hundreds of people using a computer ever day 
please relay your experiences. Some 'usability' thinking that gets bandied 
around is just not grounded in this world.

Above all, we need information that we can use, discuss and refer to so we can 
formulate concrete actions for improvement that are backed up. Developers 
need to feel that people are helping them to help people use their 
applications, not looking over their shoulders. This is what I don't think is 
happening. The mouse clicking thread was a good example of a positive way of 
doing things that will result in something probably being done.

> Unless someone have strong objections on the concept in itself, I will rig
> up a section on usability.kde.org, and we can then continue from there. 

No objections whatsoever here. This is a very positive, and much needed, 
initiative. I'll certainly be doing some reading and staying tuned.

Cheers,

David
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