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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: list of usability-related aKademy discussion
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2004-07-28 22:18:31
Message-ID: 200407282318.39018.segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk
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On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:23:46, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> yes, just let me know what to take with me and what you'd like to have
> discussed/presented and i'll do my best =)

Well, here goes.

It depends a bit on how you plan to present what is being done for usability 
within KDE to fellow developers. I would hope that there would be more coming 
out of aKademy than just technology. Truthfully, even if absolutely nothing 
is done on the hacking front I'd like to see at least some developers being 
receptive to usability, and accepting the wide variety of tasks that KDE now 
performs for people.

Try and field some questions (hopefully some sceptical ones) about working on 
usability in KDE. Are people afraid of usability? Why? Try to see how 
receptive fellow developers would really be on taking *constructive* 
criticism on usability issues. Talk about the success that KDE has, talk 
about the businesses that are using it and talk about the '80%', and how KDE 
has gone way beyond just being an open source project for open source 
hackers. Being constructive, and not religious, about usability will yield 
yet more success for everyone. Most of all, try and talk about how we need 
all KDE developers to see the need for action on the usability front 
otherwise it won't work. You should be able to draw on some experience for 
that (everyday users doing everyday tasks in KDE), and perhaps pull in some 
of the Korporate Desktop stuff. Try and emphasise how KDE will be different 
and inclusive on these issues, and that we're not starting an initiative to 
take a chainsaw to KDE. Currently, I can't see anything I'd chop functionally 
from KDE.

Yes, I know that's flowery, airy, fairy language, but I really think the human 
touch in talking with fellow developers about usability will be very 
important, otherwise it won't matter two straws what happens technically. It 
would be nice to see more core developers on this list exchanging some good 
technical ideas, and working them through on the usability front. 

Right, now onto slightly more technical matters.

1. KControl

This has been done to death over a period of years, and we've seen a lot of 
really good proposals. Personally, I think KControl, in layout terms, 
actually looks good as it is believe it or not. However, the tree view isn't 
great because you can (and frequently do) have many things in many different 
places. The great thing about KControl currently is that it looks like an 
application you can really configure with - not a panel stuck in the middle 
of the screen. The single window idea is also a good think to keep, as you 
have pointed out. As KControl can open in a more maximised way, it then 
actually becomes easier to load dialogues on top if you need to, because you 
can see what is behind. It looks and feels like something that hangs 
together, and not a collection of dialogues like the Windows control panel. I 
*really* do not think KControl should lose the good things it already has. 

I would propose a layout with a pane on the left hand side with some nice 
intruitive icons like those that have already been proposed, but with no tree 
view. It's pretty much like the icon view currently, but without the 
additional levels. These clickable icons/buttons must all be encapsulated on 
the left hand side - no scrolling and no backwards and forwards buttons. The 
left pane would contain the relevant functionality, and if a dialogue needs 
to be opened on top this can be done - although there should never really be 
more than one. This layout would also have the big advantage of consistency. 
The settings dialogues of KDE applications look the same as this currently, 
and could be modelled and improved upon in the same way.

There should be *no* search function to search the control centre itself - if 
you need to search a control centre you've failed. There's also the sizeable 
usability connotations of presenting the results of that search, *and* 
keeping the control centre structure sane and infront of the user.

This isn't a definitive answer, and I haven't yet put the effort into creating 
(yet another) designer mock up, but hopefully people can see some of the 
wisdom in the above. Perhaps people can focus on some of the existing good 
points of KControl at aKademy, rather than just trying to completely re-model 
the layout because everybody says KControl is bad. Yes, KControl needs 
improving, but please identify the good things in it first.

2. Konqueror

This has already been the subject of huge threads on this list so I won't 
dwell on it. Put simply, having one browser that can browse different things 
in a unified way is extremely good. No other desktop has managed it today. 
Unfortunately, many of these browsing and protocol functions are just too 
diverse to manage with current technology.

What is required is a customisable Konqueror, that can change its icons, 
toolbars, menus and configuration menus based on defined views and protocols. 
If you change protocol mid-stream, the look and feel will change. Many of the 
common views should ship with KDE by default, and allow people to create 
customised views for themselves. We would have file browsing, web browsing, 
FTP browsing, network browsing... Not too many, just enough to get the really 
common tasks that people do done and allow people to build infinitely on top 
of them.

That is a huge task technically, so it will be interesting to see what ideas 
the clever developers have on this. This is an example of a good technical 
challenge that I think will have an extremely positive effect on the 
usability front. It will also be a bit of a world first. Universal searching 
and browsing anyone? I've heard that mentioned somewhere....

For file browsing the layout of Konqueror also needs to be revised. Everybody 
I know, right up to advanced users, copies stuff to and from their home 
folder to and from devices like CDs, floppies and the network. You can't 
effectively do this with these functions spread over many buttons on the 
sidebar. On the other hand, the sidebar is good if it can be made a bit more 
intuitive as it can logically be split into functions users perform.

3. Kicker

Not sure about this, as at the moment I don't really see any technical 
problems with it Kicker. A lot of the major improvents are probably fairly 
simple. What changes have you made on the functional front?

> b) new default kicker layout for KDE4?

I think so, hopefully having identified the common tasks that people actually 
do - i.e. not just the developers. I believe some people call them use 
cases :).

4. Desktop

> b) something like karamba ought to be IN kdesktop if there at all

I certainly think so. A good notification and information infrastructure is 
never a bad idea from a usability point of view. Unfortunately, stuff like 
Karamba is the subject of a lot of crap at the moment, so we'll have to have 
a think about what people would actually use it for.

5. KUA Stuff

We'll wait for Frans to get some of this stuff up and running and then give it 
some serious contribution. Until that happens I don't think too much can be 
said about it. Perhaps talk about it as a pool of usability knowledge that 
anyone can use and contribute to, with some good evidence backed cases 
relating to KDE functionality. Let people know it has actually started and 
that we're all willing to go out and talk with developers in the community 
about things that may need changing and tell them why. 

Hopefully, that may have been of some help. I can imagine that talking about 
usability issues infront of a bunch of KDE hackers will be daunting, but 
providing you link it with the success of KDE and what it is physically being 
used for in the world today, I think most people will be pretty receptive. 

Cheers,

David
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