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List: kde-usability
Subject: spotting usability issues @ work?
From: Tom Karasek <tom.karasek () student ! uni-siegen ! de>
Date: 2005-02-24 19:25:23
Message-ID: 200502242025.23277.tom.karasek () student ! uni-siegen ! de
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hi all,
sometimes i have to hear complains about certain program @ work and mostly,
these are usability issues. another example is the following:
there are two older women (between 47 and 55) who are using outlook and word.
(being a sociologst, i know that n=2 is not sufficient to make general
statements but i try it anyway...;-) ).
they are the perfect example for users who just need to work with their
computer - they don't want to know, what it does or how it works (and it's
their right not to be forced to know it).
one of their problems could affect KDE-usability as well because it seems to
be general usability issue (well, at least for them): when they use outlook,
both sometimes tend to click on one of the columns (see attached pdf) without
noticing it. now, i thought it would be obvious that you can click on the
columns to sort your emails by date or by sender. however, for them, it is
not. even worse, they don't remember the solution i always show them. if i'm
around, they scream "help! outlook keeps sorting my emails in a strange
way!". if i'm NOT around, they just scroll arround to find their new mails
(if they have chosen "sort by sender" by accident). this is tricky, because
you can hit the columns two times (sorting upward / downward).
so i started to think about solutions:
(a) provide tooltips. this could be easily done. however, since "my" users
don't read anything on screen (except their own mails or maybe funstuff),
they probably won't notice it. but it's a start.
(b) label the columns like "click here to...". this can not be done - it would
eat up too much space on the screen
(c) provide buttons ABOVE the columns - could work, but the same problems as
in (b)
(d) provide a "first time" - window. the first time, the user accidently
clicks on a column, a window could pop up, informing the user, what he/she
changed and how it can be undone. this window would provide a "don't show
this again" - checkbox. would work - but maybe this is too "much" for such a
small feature?
(e) make stronger visual clues than now (the small triangle is just too
subtle), maybe through some kind of highlighting or by using the status bar.
this could introduce other problems usability-wise (e.g. usage of colours can
be another usability-issue as we all have seen on the list).
to sum it up: (b) and (c) and maybe (d) would add more clutter. (a) and (e)
could be done quite easily or could even be combined (well, i'm not a coder,
so i'm just guessing).
what do you think about it?
regards
tom karasek
--
Registered Linux-user #328730
["sorting.pdf" (application/pdf)]
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