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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: list of usability-related aKademy discussion
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-07-31 23:39:44
Message-ID: 200407311739.45797.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Friday 30 July 2004 02:48, Segedunum wrote:
> Well, I get the impression that there are, or were, good people on this
> list who have been put off by various things. We need to get them back or
> encourage them to speak up.

there was the promise of kde-usability-devel after Kastle which was prompted 
and initiated by many of these exact same people. unfortunately, for whatever 
reasons it didn't work out. there has to be somewhere in between that works 
for everyone. hopefully we'll find the stat of that path at aKademy.

> > as an FYI, i'll be talking to some professional usability ppl @ aKademy
> > as well. so it won't all be developers, it will also be building bridges
> > between traditional usability groups and open source ....
>
> I'm assuming this will not just be people who have been involved with KDE,
> but people further afield. This event looks to be reaching further outside
> KDE than ever.

indeed.

> *In general*, you shouldn't need to use a search in a control centre to use
> it - and I think that's what we have now unfortunately.

no, you shouldn't NEED it. just like you don't NEED google to browse the web. 
but it's a remarkably useful option =)

> Most of that is 
> down to the organisation of the modules, not the layout, though.

hmm... even then, no. this has been posited before. "the obvious location" 
argument. the problem is that for many things there ARE obvioius locations, 
but for many more there simply isn't. not when you take into consideration we 
have untold numbers of users in dozens of countries. if we had <50 settings 
maybe we'd do just fine. that's not something i'm interested in though, nor 
is the most of the rest of the KDE Project =)

> However, a
> fast unobtrusive, and simple, search mechanism that would instantly bring
> up *actions* (that we have the basis of now) never goes amiss.

i agree...

> I can't help feeling that it is organisational clean ups, a little bit of
> simplification, and some user feedback that KControl needs, not a wholesale
> change in direction.

this isn't a wholesale change in direction. it's an evolution. one that is 
orthogonal to individual kcontrol cleanups which will continue to need to be 
done.

we already have a search mechanism, but it's hidden and limited.
we already have an icon view (default, even, on some OSes) but it's not nearly 
as useful as it could be.
we have panel help but it too is hidden, not standardized and DEFINITELY 
underutilized.

evolution.

> However, it's something we can face as we shouldn't lose what KControl has
> going for it.

yes, everything has strengths and challenges. we need to pick a strategy that 
maximizes the former and minimizes th elatter.

> The Gnome Dashboard idea looks quite good. I've often got a reply from a
> person and wondered what the history of our conversations were, or more
> importantly, support calls related to e-mail correspondence from people
> that I needed to dredge up. However, I have yet to be convinced that they
> have the infrastructure to pull this off in the desktop as a whole. I think
> KDE certainly has.

we have the infrastructure (if not the "last mile" implementation), but the 
problem really is one of user interface. there's never enough screen real 
estate, let alone with a large bulging contextual troff on the screen.

efficiency is another issue. the memory required, the CPU cycles... i know, i 
know: optional ;-)

> > There is something else which might be worth to think about: in the
> > past KDE versions there always have been a separate sidebar tab for
> > both "home folder" and "root folder".
>
> Well, this might sound controversial, but what is a root folder, and more
> importantly, how would my users use it (I know I know what it is used for)?
> How would they know to use it, and more importantly, where would they go
> and what would they do? Think of this, especially considering that you need
> root access most of the time to be able to do things with the root
> filesystem. 

i agree completely. however, there are valid reasons to go spelunking for 
people who do things like web development, etc. the whole root filesystem is 
not needed, but access to particular areas for specific tasks are.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
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