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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Tip of the day
From:       Harijs Buss <hbush () apollo ! lv>
Date:       2005-09-07 17:08:22
Message-ID: 200509072008.22182.hbush () apollo ! lv
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Well, now it sounds much better ;-)  Thanks for explaining.  Now I start to  
understand your idea better. Maybe... if you would call things in easy  
understandable names ("Learning" instead of "usability logging", etc.) AND if 
this thing would not scream and jump on me gesticulating annoyingly each 
several seconds, AND if it will be easy to switch it off (and later maybe on) 
- it might be worth to try. What about KDE Kicker Applet, something like very 
useful Dictionary applet now?  Let me know when Beta version will be 
available ;-)

Harry

P.S. Such thing maybe could be later integrated with some kind of 
context-aware guided interactive learning tool as one of options.  That might 
be nice and very useful thing indeed.

On Wednesday 07 September 2005 19:40, Zak Jensen rakstija:
> On 9/7/05, Harijs Buss <hbush@apollo.lv> wrote:
> > On Wednesday 07 September 2005 16:19, Zak Jensen rakstija:
> > > The basic concept is to create an agent/daemon that tracks what the
> > > user does, and offers tips that are relevent to that activity
> >
> > M$ tried exactly such thing in one of Office releases (don't remember how
> > was this "talking paper clip" called). This feature was universally
> > claimed by majority of users as absolutely most annoying thing M$ has
> > ever made, and excluded from following versions of MS Office.
> >
> > People usually do not like idea of being watched and mentored all the
> > time.
>
> From what I have heard (and experienced) the troubling aspect for most
> people was not that it monitored what you were doing. It was, instead,
> that it wasy very "in your face" about what it would do. The agent
> would pop up and constantly offer its services to you. When it was
> displayed, it would animate itself, which would distract users from
> what they were doing. It had disturbing sound effects. And, possibly
> the worst aspect of the whole thing, was very difficult to turn off.
> It was fist available (I believe) in Office 2000. It may still be in
> office now.
>
> My idea is much less intrusive. It would only monitor your activities
> when either:
> A) You had "usability logging" enabled, or
> B) When the "KTips plasmoid" was displayed on the screen.
> In all other circumstances, the agent would not be active, or even
> loaded into the screen.
>
> In addition, it would not display an annoying animated agent. The
> whole concept rests on the foundation of the agent being within a
> passive plasmoid. If a user doesn't want the tips, they can close the
> plasmoid. If enabled, the plasmoid would be largely inert. It might
> update once every 5-10 minutes, wouldn't scroll, and wouldn't utilize
> dialogs or pop ups to communicate with the user.
>
> Another key function of this is it provides "tips". It monitors user
> activity over a long period of time, and adjusts the tips displayed
> based on that activity. It doesn't have the "it looks like you are
> making a letter" functionality.
>
> > Maybe would be worth to make such feature as special "learning option".
> > But God save Linux if this would become the default.
>
> That is what I intended it for. It doesn't aid the user at every turn.
> The premise behind the whole thing was making KTips more applicable &
> less annoying.
>
> > Harry
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