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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: How to join the KDE Usability Team?
From:       Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste () kde ! org>
Date:       2008-12-30 14:23:53
Message-ID: 200812300923.53423.celeste () kde ! org
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On Tuesday 30 December 2008 03:04:08 am Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 2008/12/30 Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste@kde.org>:
> > On Monday 29 December 2008 05:11:58 pm Maciej Pilichowski wrote:
> >> On Monday 29 December 2008 20:43:33 Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:
> >> > I would not want to put ways users can submit usability bug reports
> >> > on a contributing page. Users submitting a usability bug is a
> >> > conflict of interest.
> >>
> >> ? I don't get it.
> >>
> >> HIG says "put X at Y". App violates this. It is valid bug for me (or
> >> issue with HIG), but logically they cannot both be right.
> >
> > Sure, but users aren't going to have complete knowledge of the HIG, and
> > not just the KDE HIG, but of all other HIGs (since our guidelines are
> > incomplete) plus some design knowledge.  At that point they become junior
> > designers which is a different role.
>
> I think that you are confusing designers with usability "experts", of
> which there are none. I am not underestimating the importance of
> Senior Interaction Architects, rather, I stress that their learned and
> valued opinion is not the only valid opinion on usability issues, as
> preferences and usage scenarios vary.

I think you are confusing designers with graphic artists.  Design is design. 
Usability is a quality.  You need good design in order to have good usability. 
Interaction architecture is a specific specialty I get billed out for in the 
company who employs me.

Back to the ORIGINAL question about the HIG (which you continue on the 
discussion below).  There is no motivation or purpose for a user to know what 
is in the HIG.  For them to go in to it and learn the rules so they can report 
bugs would be the same as reading up on coding styleguide and reviewing source 
code for incorrect uses of classes or lack of comments.  At that point you are 
no longer a user but have taken on a different role, either as a designer or a 
coder.

Software bugs -- when things aren't working as intended -- are different.  
Reporting those bugs is part of the user's role.  

Incorrect captialization is one thing, but if you click a button and you 
expect it to do one thing and it does another, it is difficult for the user to 
ascertain if it is a software bug, or if it is working as the developer 
intended.  If it is working as the developer intended but now how you expect, 
then it is difficult for you to put yourself in an unbiased position to 
determine who has the better mental model, you or the developer.

> > With that being said, again, I would not suggest users go read and learn
> > a design document just to submit design bugs unless they want to become
> > designers.
>
> I do not want to become a programmer, but according to BKO I've
> participated in over 400 bug reports, about half of which I've filed
> and the other half of which I've triaged and added reproduction
> instructions, marked as dupe, or helped in other ways. If I can do
> that without formal training, why can't I file usability issues. I sit
> in front of KDE for 12 hours a day!

See previous mail about conflict of interest.  Do I need to start quoting Don 
Norman? Users are not designers. They can't be.  Controlled participation is 
one thing, "user-directed" is a bad bad thing.

> > The HIG is dead?  It got transferred to Techbase this past summer with
> > new content from 2 SoU interns.  I wouldn't call it dead, it's just
> > incomplete and progress is slow.
>
> New content does not make a HIG. Content that conforms to what users
> request, and enforcement of the HIG, makes a HIG. Neither seem to be
> the case with the KDE HIG.

The HIG has nothing to do with user requests.  It is a technical document.  A 
specification.  It dictates consistency and patterns.  The HIG provides that in 
the few articles it has.  It doesn't do much since it is incomplete. Users 
don't have anything to do with kdelibs and they shouldn't have anything to do 
with the HIG. 

-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability Project
usability.kde.org
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