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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    [KDE Usability] Re: Google Code-in ideas
From:       Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste () kde ! org>
Date:       2010-11-10 0:34:58
Message-ID: AANLkTinuRjwaip9fV1U7UUZwLPFwp8Y2Ys+Hv4EPY8PH () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Lydia Pintscher <lydia@kde.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 17:59, todd rme <toddrme2178@gmail.com> wrote:
>> A few more:
>>
>> A comprehensive comparison between the KDE HIG and other available
>> HIGs, both so KDE developers know what to expect on other systems and
>> perhaps to better identify potential areas of improvement.  Particular
>> attention should be paid to areas where other HIGs have guidelines but
>> KDE does not.
>
> This sounds quite challenging. If this is considered needed/useful it
> would be a comparatively big and difficult task if done properly.
>

This is definitely too difficult for high school students. This is too
difficult for a lot of practitioners ;)

>> Devise an online card-sorting experiment for common menu items in
>> order to improve KDE's menus.
>
> Is there infrastructure available for this? If yes this sounds like a nice idea.

Maybe, I'll have to ping one of my contacts at websort to see if the
offer of a free account is still available.

>
>> Implement the File Menu -> Program Name Menu conversion (if you
>> actually want to do that).  The actual conversion might be a separate
>> project, this could only be providing an appropriate modification to
>> KDElibs to make this change easy.
>
> I don't think this is decided currently so probably better to leave it
> out of Code-in.
>
>> Implement a general Menu toolbar item that someone could put in the
>> toolbar of any application.  Its contents should be identical to that
>> of the menu bar.  Rekonq uses something like this exclusively, but
>> providing a general one that all applications get for free is a
>> long-standing wish.  This would not be in the toolbar by default, but
>> would be available for users who want it.
>
> This sounds a tick too challenging for Code-in.

What about creating a small survey plasma widget using the javascript
api + xml + some webservice (can be determined later, maybe
opendesktop could host it). Users can install the widget, answer the
survey of the week and submit the results to the cloud somewhere. Then
we can tally the results and hopefully get some good feedback. Three
phases from now, maybe people can get karma points on OpenDesktop for
participating ;)

The student could write a widget that pulls the survey of the day from
some web service (can be static for now) that is tailored to asking
about an interface feature.

Example survey: How do you add a printer?

Purpose (not revealed to participants): There are a number of ways
users can configure a printer. This survey will help capture a) common
ways users tend to configure printers; b) problems they encounter; c)
their overall rating of the experience

Survey:
Tell us how you configure a printer in KDE!
1. Briefly describe the steps you take in order to add and configure a
new printer in KDE (HINT: pretend to install a new printer and
describe each menu you click and option you configure) (text area)
2. Overall, how difficult or easy do you think it is to configure a
printer in KDE? (5 point scale)
3. What are 3 things you like about configuring a printer in KDE? (text box)
4. What are 3 things you don't like or would like to see improved
about configuring a printer in KDE? (text box)
Submit!

They can even come up with a few questions to start out the database.
In the future, it could be a way of deploying short user surveys to a
large number of people to test out features or get opinions.


-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability Project
KDE e.V. Board of Directors
www.kde.org
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