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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Cardsortinig KMenu (was:Re: [another PATCH]: Kicker find as
From:       seele () obso1337 ! org
Date:       2005-05-20 13:03:34
Message-ID: 55338.209.116.240.11.1116594214.squirrel () webmail ! halcyonhosting ! net
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> > From what Ive gathered from previous discussions about audience, KDE's
> > target audience is every day (moderate) users in a work or home
> > environment that are fairly competent with computers but are far from
> > being sysadmins, developers or serious hobbyists.
> 
> Are there any KDE testing guidelines that help to define groups and
> methods to
> select people for sampling groups? Occasionally, there is discussion of
> testing 'normal' users. If there are no written guidelines for KDE, maybe
> we
> should writing some testing/sampling guidelines for the purpose of
> creating
> an easy, moderately effective and credible routine to use.

i dont think there are too many people who have actual user-testing
experience.  'normal' users are not power users.  so getting developers,
geek buddies and adept computer friends isnt very helpful, but coworkers
who have non computer-technical jobs, family members and non-computer
intense friends are.  thats not saying that by testing power users we
wouldnt be able to asses any usability issues, but testing more 'normal'
users would show us issues powerusers over come easily, or have already
learned to overcome.

afaik there are no usability guidlines when it comes to testing.  the only
documents available are for developers.  basic usability testing methods
work, so if youre interested in leaning more about user testing and
different usability assessment methods, there is a pretty good collection
of whitepapers and books which explain them.

http://uk.builder.com/whitepapers/0,39026692,60033031p-39000822q,00.htm

this is a good paper from HP which explains the different methods of
evaluation and what their strengths and benefits are

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841500208/qid=1116593843/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-7497677-3779049
 this is a highly recommended book on beginning user testing


> 
> I do not want to be picky about Java, but who is expected to enter the
> data,

the benefit from having a webbased card sort would be and increased sample
size.  yes, installation and usage would be independent factors, but the
biggest hurdle would be to install java, not to use it.

and who says the users have to be running kde or linux?  the card sort
would be or get a better idea of how most users organize using computers. 
the platform wouldnt matter.

> > Would it be more beneficial to come up with possible categories for
> > users

there are two ways we can do the card sort, let users create and organize
items themselves or come up with categories and allow users to organize
using only those.  ive been trying to dig up some research on human
organization methods to get a better idea of which point we should start
at.  i see users organizing one of two ways: based on task (all software
related to a certain task) or relation (all software which is similar in
design or function).




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