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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Usability tests should not focus on icons
From:       Steve Hunt <theshunt () crosswinds ! net>
Date:       2001-07-26 14:07:34
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The icons can't be perfect, there are many cultures which these icons 
don't fit.  However, for most of the users in America and Canada, these 
icons fit well.  Some people were complaining about the shell icon. 
 While it makes sense for me, it may not for some others.

BUT...

That's why there are tooltips.  I actually like the shell icon pun. 
 Some people may not understand it off the bat, but if they talk to any 
American KDE user, they would probably figure it out.  Take Noatun for 
example.  Does anybody know what the word Noatun means?  You would if 
you were into the Asatru religion.  Noatun was the shipyard of Njord.  I 
spent hours finding that.  Does that mean that there is anything wrong 
with calling it a name that everybody can't understand?  Not in my mind.

However, I completely agree that the K button needs a facelift.  It 
looks good (better than a foot ;-)) but it isn't very intuitive for 
anybody who hasn't used KDE or GNOME.  I would recommend making it 
wider, if that is possible. This would show the user that it isn't just 
any other button on the panel.  Also, as somebody else pointed out, I 
like the idea of the Rocketship icon.  This might hint that it is the 
Application Launcher button.

-Steve

Charles de Miramon wrote:

>Hi,
>I don't think we should worry to much about changing the icons in KDE. Icons 
>are very dependant of the cultural context and the feed-back of users of one 
>country is going to be very specific to this country.
>I'll give an example. The (pretty) icon for the Gnome Control Center is a 
>toolbox (http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~ben/icons/control-center_big.png). It looks 
>like a typical toolbox you can buy in the US but in France toolboxes have 
>rectangular shapes. So for an US user it is intuitive but not for a French 
>one.
>
>We should accept that icons are conventions... The newbie user will have to 
>learn these conventions (like he learned the Windows conventions) but we 
>should help him with good info-tips and info-bubbles.
>
>Cheers,
>Charles 
>_______________________________________________
>kde-usability mailing list
>kde-usability@master.kde.org
>http://master.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability
>
>.
>



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