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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: reorder windows in taskbar
From:       Scott Wheeler <wheeler () kde ! org>
Date:       2006-08-29 14:14:23
Message-ID: 200608291614.33967.wheeler () kde ! org
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On Tuesday 29 August 2006 14:40, Thomas Zander wrote:
> On Tuesday 29 August 2006 12:17, Scott Wheeler wrote:
> > Completely aside from the rest of the debate:
> > > User research shows again and again that the only people that care
> > > about altering their environment (tabs, windows but also docking
> > > windows etc) are technical people. Which obviously is not the main
> > > target of KDE. Its also a tiny minority.
> >
> > I don't think any of those three sentences is well established.
>
> Thats funny, I thought these points were well known by now. :(
> I'll state my sources here, but I want to make it very clear I am not
> going to discuss these things I think are fact;
>
> Sentence 1
> Read up on your basic usability to find out that the usage of a computer
> or a window or even a tabbed-window is to achieve a goal, its by no means
> an end in itself.  Just the technical people that like to play with
> complex things find the power this setup can give them compelling. If you
> observe people that are forced to use computers because thats what their
> work entails you will observe that moving windows etc around may be done,
> but is best avoided. Moving tabs around is by no means a required
> feature.

I'm not arguing for this specific feature, just the argumentation against 
it.  "The only people that care about altering their environment are 
technical people" is a much broader statement than is substantiated by 
usability literature.  (Changing the desktop background is for 
instance "altering the environment".)

> Sentence 2
> If you read the reports on personas from Tina you'd see that the technical
> crowd (the original linux users[1]) is not what the target group of KDE
> is according to the (kde) programmings.

That's in fact one of the debates within KDE usability -- "Who are we 
targetting?"  That's been one of the difficult and unanswered questions for a 
while.  Personas naturally don't answer that question; they're a tool for 
understanding the decision once it's been made.

> The 3th, 'tiny' sentence; please see research on KDE usage. Aaron blogged
> about it recently (0.36%?) and you see more and more governments,
> schools, companies etc starting to use it. In other words; KDE has a LONG
> time ago reached a point where there are many more users than
> contributers. It logically follows that these are not all programmers
> either.
> Here 80.000 new users (no I didn't check which desktop is used there)
> http://linux.sys-con.com/read/262426.htm

That's a straw-man argument (wp:straw-man).  You're arguing against something 
I didn't suggest.  What you said was that users that change their environment 
are a tiny minority.  You've also made the jump from "users who change their 
environment" -> technical users -> programmers.  Those are distinct groups.

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you on the inclusion of this feature, but if 
you're going to go to the trouble of refuting it, I think it's best to avoid 
sweeping generalizations.

Cheers,

-Scott
-- 
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public 
relations, for nature cannot be fooled. 
--Richard Feynman
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