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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: The new tooltips
From:       Thomas Zander <zander32 () gmail ! com>
Date:       2005-01-16 15:05:58
Message-ID: ed64b31a05011607052b582a8b () mail ! gmail ! com
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Hi Jason,

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 18:45:49 -0400, Jason Keirstead <jason@keirstead.org> wrote:
> On January 15, 2005 11:44 am, David Legg wrote:
> > The statement that it slows down the user experience is just that - a
> > statement. The task that a user wants to perform if they have their mouse
> > pointer in the kicker is to find out what application they want to run, and
> > to get at least some feedback about what these applications are.
> 
> Argh. No, it is not!
> 
> This is only the task of someone who is very, vey new to the KDE desktop. The
> task of anyone else, is simply to execute an application. It is not to *find*
> an aplication. They already know that icon x is application y, so what good
> does the giant tooltip serve?

This conclusion of yours is unfortunately not true for the majority of
computer users today.  Gaining the knowledge of what each button
means, and predicting what the effect of pressing that button does is
a long process for most people, and we say they are experts in that
piece of software when those people know this for each button.  In my
time (doing usability and generally working with people) I have seen
almost no experts for more then one application. The general way for
people to work is to remember generally where and how to do a certain
task and then find the right button by recognizing the icon/text.

You may have seen this in users that have to use a computer for their
work, but are the opposite of experts.  They know only Word and all
computer tasks are done through word.  This behavior is more common
then you think.  Even most KDE developers don't know where in the
K-Menu the konsole application is located without at least accessing 2
other menus; even though just about all of them have started it at
least one time.

The end conclusion is that you may indeed learn the meaning of a
button in 1 or 2 uses, it is wrong to assume that this works for all
users (always remeber; you are not your user).

That said; there are still quite some bugs to fix in the codebase; so
you won't have the best user-experience yet, but this feature is sure
to make things more accesible for the average user.
-- 
Thomas Zander
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