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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: list of usability-related aKademy discussion
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2004-07-26 21:27:16
Message-ID: 200407262227.46441.segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk
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On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 03:33:26, Frans Englich wrote:
> The KUA project is very vulnerable for "inappropriate" publicity, and I
> will hence ask Derek to go radio silent about it on the cvs-digest. It
> could also be of use to roughly sort out everything concerning kcontrol
> before Derek start mentioning it -- it could otherwise too lead to much
> unnecessary noise.

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 08:08:55, Frans Englich wrote:
> But I would skip discussing KControl on aKademy because it would lead to
> much friction. 

Hmmm. I'm not convinced that going silent on this is the way to go really, but 
as the KUA stuff is still a work in progress there isn't much to shout about 
yet anyway. I think you have the makings of some good stuff there, provided 
the right language and tone can be found - I think that's absolutely crucial, 
quite honestly.

If you go silent, and then unleash the KUA stuff on people in a big-bang it 
will be instantly rejected, no matter what you do or how you say or word it. 
Quietly and gently talk about it, and all the time try and relate it to the 
success of KDE and how KDE is being used in the world today by people who are 
not open source hackers. Nothing satisfies people more than their stuff being 
used :). The stuff on the Enterprise KDE site is a great potential field of 
information for this. That link I provided in my amended KUA to International 
Hout was a good example, and stuff like that fascinates me - not mythical ten 
thousand desktop deployments :). Look, there's a picture of a computer 
running KDE, in an office with a phone and work next to it! That was a 
stellar article by Fabrice by the way. Hopefully, if I get my head in gear 
this weekend I'll have something else to add to Enterprise KDE over the 
coming weeks.

If you want more information about how KDE is used, contact Fabrice and maybe 
e-mail the people who were interviewed. Perhaps it is time for the 80% to get 
involved in the community - albeit indirectly. I think there's a fairly large 
untapped resource there, and I found more good information on there than I 
have on this list to be honest.

I know that's all easier said than done, and I have no doubt that discussing 
usability with others within KDE will be (and is) even harder than on a 
commercial project. However, sooner or later we'll have to talk about it and 
come to terms with it - we can't just keep avoiding friction. People involved 
with KDE have to see a need (off their own bat mind) in thinking about 
usability issues, and that people on this list are here to help. That's going 
to take a not inconsiderable bit of effort, and good thinking on how to go 
about doing it. Other projects have done great work in bringing the focus on 
usability, but things have been set back a bit because of the way things have 
generally been done and implemented.

Perhaps Aaron can bring up the subject of KUAs at aKademy to a wider audience? 
He did say he was opening himself up as an ambassador :). I agree that care 
needs to be taken with how all this is presented, but whatever happens, they 
will just plain have to go beyond this list and be discussed by other people. 
aKademy might be a good place to try and start doing that, even for those 
people who are not there.

Cheers,

David
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