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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 14:23:48
Message-ID: 200812300923.48594.celeste () kde ! org
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On Tuesday 30 December 2008 02:56:26 am Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 2008/12/29 Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste@kde.org>:
> > 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.
>
> Not to be argumentative, but could you please point out the conflict
> of interest? I do not see a conflict of interest, rather, I see that
> the _user_ should be the one submitting the usability enhancement
> requests.

The user is biased towards their own needs and insensitive to the needs of 
other roles and do not have the full picture of the business and system 
requirements. Sure, you might get some issues right which could affect more 
than just themselves.  Also, obvsiouly the user is going to have a bias to fix 
what affects them, even if it might have an opposite affect on someone else. 
These biases is part of what causes the conflict of interest.

if that's not enough, go read up on it.  This is a general principle in user-
centered design.

>
> > It is hard for a user to be able to diagnose an issue as a wish for
> > themselves or a real design issue.
>
> That's fair enough. What about a test case composed of eight subjects?
> I did one recently with the Konqueror context menus, and filed two
> bugs on what I learned. Sometimes I can coax more people into
> participating, sometimes less.
>
> > Having users submit "usability" bugs instead of wishes
> > will reduce the importance of real usability bugs.
>
> Please describe what a real usability bugs is.

A design issue and not a wish. 

I briefing scanned over your next email. Usability and design are generically 
synonymous.  Usability is a quality of a design and it is silly to separate it 
out as a single entity.  Usability is just a buzz word that made it in to 
everyone's vocabulary.

>
> > What *could* go there are links to surveys or other participatory methods
> > that users can participate in, but those are few and far between.  User
> > feedback is only useful when there is a purpose in mind, and when that
> > happens, we come find you.
>
> I see, so the surveys that I perform _are_ satisfactory. Very well,
> then, I will file usability issues only after I have run the idea
> across several users, and if I still feel that there is room for
> improvement only then will I file the bug.

You conduct or you participate in?  There is a difference.  Users can 
participate in surveys.  They shouldn't *conduct* surveys. Since theyre not 
designers they don't know what questions to ask in order to solve the problem. 
Any evidence you would gather isn't really evidence if it is the wrong answer 
for the wrong question.

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