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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: The User Interface Guidelines have moved
From:       Aaron Seigo <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-09-01 21:48:04
Message-ID: 200409011548.04121.aseigo () kde ! org
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On September 1, 2004 15:10, Christian Loose wrote:
> On Wednesday 01 September 2004 22:36, Thomas Zander wrote:
> > I'll make this brief as I see this is not going to be a no-discussion
> > email no matter how I write it.
> >
> > The HIG and many other guides have been decided to get a rewrite from
> > zero by people that work in their respective fields daily;
>
> <sarcasm>That's a great idea! Maybe we should do the same with our
> software.</sarcasm>

we do, actually. the translators generally don't write the software for 
instance, and sometimes we do start from zero (witness our media apps since 
3.1).

> I used to think that KDE was a community effort where everybody could
> participate.

it still is.

> Don't get me wrong. I'm really grateful for the marvelous work Ellen, Jan
> and the rest of relevantive AG have done for us. I just wish those people
> would be more visible and involved here to give other contributors a chance
> to a) learn and b) get involved.

it isn't just Ellen and Jan. it's also people like Dr. Siggie at Novell and 
hopefully soon some of the profs from universities in England. 

on of the biggest things i pushed for was to make the usability stuff MORE 
like KDE. this is why kde-usability-devel largely failed, IMHO, and why 
didn't get a HIG rewrite last year. by keeping the discussions on 
kde-usability, kde-accessability and kde-artists, by having a public mailing 
list for cross-discipline discussion (kde-guidelines) and by putting 
everything in KDE's CVS tree we are trying to open up the usability process.

if you wish to get involved, openusability.org is a good place to watch some 
of these people work with developers. it's too noisy here for many 
developers, but this list serves an important function. openusability.org, 
which is migrating to the XML DTD we formulated on this very list, is a less 
noisy place and a place where we can all learn and even participate.

we discussed things like requesting usability field studies to be done on 
kde-usability, since we've seen a few high quality pieces in the last month 
or two here. this was very well received and almost certainly to be taken 
advantage of. developers will request these studies, or people on 
openusability.org will and then those requests will be passed on and we get 
to do what we're best at: testing things out, brainstorming, ripping things 
to shreds =)

so, in short. i agree with you that many people weren't visible enough, and 
that we need to be "more like KDE" than not like KDE in usability. the 
usability professionals are seeing the light, however, as they were totally 
blown away by how well received they were by the kde-pim people. you see, 
most usability professionals have a healthy scepticism of developers and 
managers since they usually thwart their efforts. the kde-pim people, on the 
other hand, embraced them. they are falling in love with the open source 
processes.

at next year's conference we can look back, again, and see our progress. 
already we're ahead of last year and we're only into week 1. this is a 
none-too-easy task of walking several fences to bring everything and everyone 
together, but i think we're starting to do it.

breaking some eggs in the process, but hey... that happens when you make 
omelettes.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
Society is Geometric
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