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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: E-Mail Scrolling in KMail/Kontact
From:       seele () obso1337 ! org
Date:       2005-03-23 19:44:38
Message-ID: 60608.4.36.129.2.1111607078.squirrel () webmail ! halcyonhosting ! 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.
>

it *is* the case.  its just the same as doing a user test on konq where
users probably have used something else before, and just the same as doing
a user test on kde just as users probably have used windows or macos
desktop environment.

>> 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

im not arguing that a users former experience will effect the way they use
and interface.  but any aspect of a gui could be an experience, from using
the menus, or keyboard shortcuts or scrolling through a list of items.

for example, lets take kde usage.  if someone is familiar with using kde,
they would be familiar with using kmail, regardless of if they have used
mail client before or not.  all kde apps (in theory) should have a certain
degree of consistency in certain behaviors, including something like
scrolling through a list.  users coming to interact with kmail would have
former experience and would expect to interact with a list (regardless if
its in a pane or if it is a list of emails) similarly.

>
> Sven
> _______________________________________________
> kde-usability mailing list
> kde-usability@kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
>


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