Re: galculator should be included in Gnome

[Rich Burridge <Rich Burridge Sun COM>]

Andrew Sobala wrote:
> > Cool. Which GNOME HIG person are you working with?
>
> The HIG is a document, and the first step to becoming "usable." Becoming
> HIG-compliant is a way for developers to improve usability since there
> aren't enough usability experts to go around.
> 
> After that, people generally post screenshots to Usability gnome org to
> get usability testing and feedback from everyone on that list.

Understood. Getting the look and feel correct is a first step, but I'm not
sure a agree with the approach you are suggesting after that. Screenshots
are one thing. Basic functionality testing is also needed. 

As well as the masses testing it, at some point though, the calculator of 
choice for GNOME needs to have HCI/HIG input for it's usability from people 
who fully understand HCI/HIG problems. I.e. people trained in HCI/HIG ways. 

In the 18 years that I've been writing "open source" software, I've found that 
every user/developer has his or her own idea on what they think is the best 
way that something should be done. This leads to anarchy. Unless it's a
slam dunk, and everybody loves the applications functionality, a ruling 
decision that everybody should accept, needs to be made by a qualified 
HCI/HIG person.

The developer should then work with the HIG/HCI person to address any
issues found.