From kde-usability Fri Aug 27 04:54:55 2004 From: James Richard Tyrer Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 04:54:55 +0000 To: kde-usability Subject: Re: K-ARTIST: KDE HIG, CIG and AG Message-Id: <412EBE9F.6040405 () acm ! org> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-usability&m=109358251617283 kde-core-devel@kde.org wrote: >>appears to me that it won't be of much help to produce User (Human) >>Interface Guidelines that specify the use of "magic buttons" and hidden >>configuration options that confuse users > > who said it would? to keep this discussion productive refrain from inventing > "facts" to argue about. I am not inventing facts. My statements are, as the often are, based on questions posted by users to the two support lists (kde & kde-linux), and user comments on BugZilla. My point, which I probably didn't make clear, is that new guidelines, to be useful, are going to have to state that some of the recent changes made in the name of usability improvement (but which are are actually the opposite) are not allowed. Specifically that hiding stuff is never a usability improvement, it just makes it harder to use -- organizing stuff in a logical and consistent manner is what improves usability. So, hiding stuff in a unique way is probably the worst from a usability perspective. I didn't/don't think that guidelines were needed to realize this, but that doesn't mean that they are a bad idea either. -- JRT _______________________________________________ kde-usability mailing list kde-usability@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability