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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: amaroK usability report
From:       "Chi Shang Cheng" <chishangcheng () gmail ! com>
Date:       2006-05-09 21:21:26
Message-ID: 8e5359a90605091421l259f0c9an433ef20616125a1a () mail ! gmail ! com
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2006/5/7, Christian Nitschkowski <christian.nitschkowski@kdemail.net>:
>
> Am Dienstag, 2. Mai 2006 00:33 schrieb Chi Shang Cheng:
> > I have conducted a quick heuristic evaluation of amaroK.
> >
> ---snip---
>
> > Comments are welcome!
> >
>
> I made a proposal for a new first run wizard.
> Have a look at http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=126923


Hi Christian,

Due to the lack of good layout management in Qt, a lot of design issues that
I addressed cannot be fixed. And there are still a lot that I didn't mention
and apply to KDE as well. On the other hand, Gnome has excellent layout
management built-in in their toolkit (GTK+), which is the main reason why
99% of their applications look good from a design perspective (good
contrast, clarity, harmony etc.). Qt 4.1 introduces much better layout
management (judging from the documentation, haven't seen KDE 4 apps yet), in
contrast with the version that is used in KDE 3.5.

So, your proposal fixes several things, but also introduces several new
usability issues (related to design):
- You're introducing imagery (an icon) in the top-right corner. By placing
it far away from text, it quickly loses its meaning. Imagery should not be
used to decorate, it should be used to communicate. So instead, place the
icon in the top left corner, left of the heading. This will also help the
user relate the icon with that text/meaning, so future inferences of the
meaning of a certain icon will be improved in accuracy and speed. Text
should aligned accordingly.
- Text in the lower section of the window is still bold. Bold text should
only be used for emphasis of a single or a few words.
- There's a typo in the title of the last screen.
- During the Collection Setup screen, the user has no clear reason to select
folders where music is stored. Express the motivation for doing so in
concrete terms. If you do A, then B happens. Or use more exciting way of
speaking to convince the user to do so.

Regards,

Chi Shang

> Chi Shang
>
> Best Regards
> Christian Nitschkowski
>
> _______________________________________________
> kde-usability mailing list
> kde-usability@kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
>

[Attachment #5 (text/html)]

2006/5/7, Christian Nitschkowski &lt;<a \
href="mailto:christian.nitschkowski@kdemail.net">christian.nitschkowski@kdemail.net</a>&gt;:<div><span \
class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px \
solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Am \
Dienstag, 2. Mai 2006 00:33 schrieb Chi Shang Cheng:<br>&gt; I have conducted a quick \
heuristic evaluation of amaroK.<br>&gt;<br>---snip---<br><br>&gt; Comments are \
welcome!<br>&gt;<br><br>I made a proposal for a new first run wizard. <br>Have a look \
at <a href="http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=126923">http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=126923</a></blockquote><div><br>Hi \
Christian,<br><br>Due to the lack of good layout management in Qt, a lot of design \
issues that I addressed cannot be fixed. And there are still a lot that I didn't \
mention and apply to KDE as well. On the other hand, Gnome has excellent layout \
management built-in in their toolkit (GTK+), which is the main reason why 99% of \
their applications look good from a design perspective (good contrast, clarity, \
harmony etc.). Qt  4.1 introduces much better layout management (judging from the \
documentation, haven't seen KDE 4 apps yet), in contrast with the version that is \
used in KDE 3.5.<br><br>So, your proposal fixes several things, but also introduces \
several new usability issues (related to design): <br>- You're introducing imagery \
(an icon) in the top-right corner. By placing it far away from text, it quickly loses \
its meaning. Imagery should not be used to decorate, it should be used to \
communicate. So instead, place the icon in the top left corner, left of the heading. \
This will also help the user relate the icon with that text/meaning, so future \
inferences of the meaning of a certain icon will be improved in accuracy and speed. \
Text should aligned accordingly. <br>- Text in the lower section of the window is \
still bold. Bold text should only be used for emphasis of a single or a few \
words.<br>- There's a typo in the title of the last screen.<br>- During the \
Collection Setup screen, the user has no clear reason to select folders where music \
is stored. Express the motivation for doing so in concrete terms. If you do A, then B \
happens. Or use more exciting way of speaking to convince the user to do so. \
<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Chi Shang<br></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" \
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; \
padding-left: 1ex;">&gt; Chi Shang<br><br>Best Regards<br>Christian Nitschkowski \
<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>kde-usability mailing \
list<br><a href="mailto:kde-usability@kde.org">kde-usability@kde.org</a><br><a \
href="https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability">https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
 </a><br></blockquote></div><br>



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