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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    feedback from the gnome usability study.
From:       Sheldon Lee Wen <tormak () home ! com>
Date:       2001-07-26 1:28:34
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Hi,

  My first appearance, and I have some feedback about what I think
we can learn from the gnome usability study.

There are some things that KDE can learn from this.
1) The konsole application, on the tool bar it makes the same mistake as the 
gnome one in calling it a terminal emulation program.
 
2) When you click on a text document in konqy it gets previewed in an 
embedded viewer. However, it is not editable and there is no indication that 
you are read only. This got me
the first time, I expected it to embed kword and allow me to edit it. While 
you can embed kword as the viewer, you still cannot edit w/ a left mouse 
button click unless you change the mime-type setting to "preview in an 
external viewer". KDE would do well to pay attention to the recommendations 
made to the gnome team on this issue. I like the border idea, but I'd put an 
inline link at the top saying something like "Click here to edit this 
document."
 
3) The browser icon and the K on the root menu don't convey their meanings as 
obviously as they should.
 
4) We have the same problem with the KDE Home directory icon as the gnomes do 
w/ the nautilus home icon.
 
5) We have the same problems w/ the name applets for the panel as the gnomes, 
but I don't think we are near as bad. Some naming changes to the menu might 
help though (eg. not everyone will get what the function of KSysyGuard is, 
esp if they have problems logging into gnome).
 
6) The panel extentions might be confusing too.
 
7) In the desktop rmb menu you have the entries:
   i) Configure desktop
   ii) Configure background
These might be ambiguous to some people, or even mean the same thing. There 
is no clear meaning implied by Configure Desktop.
 
8) We are not nearly as bad on the font issue as the gnomes, but it still 
isn't that clear, and many applications let you configure the fonts specific 
to that app. This is not necessarily a good thing for usability by new users. 
Also, there should be tooltips for the font categories in the control center 
that give a better explanation of what each is for.
 
The biggest issue I see is the embedded viewers one. Once you are aware that 
the rmb lets you open it it's ok, but the default should be to open it 
read/write. Whether that is in an embedded editor, (kwrite/kword/kedit/etc 
embedded in konqy) or not, doesn't matter (the default should be kword in my 
opinion). There should be a default. It also should be configurable.

Cheers,
Sheldon.
-- 
===========================================================
"... all thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred and
 violence are the result of a lack of wisdom ... "
 - Buddha

For an awsome fantasy role playing game checkout:
http://lycadican.sourceforge.net
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