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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: E-Mail Scrolling in KMail/Kontact
From:       Sven Burmeister <sven.burmeister () gmx ! net>
Date:       2005-03-23 19:23:11
Message-ID: 200503232023.12279.sven.burmeister () gmx ! net
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Hi!

Am Mittwoch, 23. März 2005 19:28 schrieb seele@obso1337.org:
> a user test isnt a test of how well a user uses an application.  a user
> test is a test of the interface.  you do NOT tell the user how to use the
> interface (such as telling them what keys they can use to perform the
> test).  you give the user a set of tasks to perform on the interface and
> allow them to perform them however they want.  if they choose to go to
> help and lookup keyboard shortcuts, so be it. if they find
> search-and-destroy techniques more comfortable, thats fine.

Just to clarify this, your way is valid for GUIs that users are new to, which 
is not the case when having a three-pane email-client tested by users that 
have used one before.

> in order to specifically test the arrow key issue in this thread, you
> would engineer tasks which would require this kind of interaction.
> encourage the user to explain what they are doing, why they are doing it
> and how they feel about it.  if they click through messages, are they more
> comfortable using a mouse or did they feel uncomfortable using the
> keyboard?  if they use the keyboard to scroll through messages, how many
> errors (wrongly pressed keys) did they recover from before they figured
> out what to do.  are they comfortable with that or are they just coping
> with the interface.
>
> user tests are one-time.  there is no re-evaluation or practice run.

See above, this is valid for new GUIs. Otherwise one asks the users taken part 
in the test for their former experience. For example when one examines the 
GUI (navigation within) of a mobile: People are asked before they take the 
test, whether they have used a mobile before and which brand. The reason is 
to see how big the bias due to accomodation to a brand (navigation used by 
it) is. The real intuitive GUI would be the one that performs best with those 
users never having used a mobile before.

Sven
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