Re: Usability Tests [Was: Suggestion for the actual UI of GTK+'s New FileSelector]

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

(note: my last message on this sub-topic, if anyone wants to continue
this conversation, email me privately.)

On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 13:03, Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 17:54, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> > Most people using GNOME are not people who have never used a computer.
> 
> Hmms, I'd say most people using GNOME are techies and reasonably
> computer savvy, but the user GNOME's been targeting isn't really that
> one. Or has it changed without me noticing?

There is a difference between being a techie and having computer
experience.  My mother isn't a techie, but she's been using a computer
for longer than I've been alive.  She doesn't understand anything about
programming, system configuration, etc.

This isn't black and white, there is a huge range of user skill sets
between "writes UNIX kernels from scratch for breakfast" and "lives in a
cave and tries to spear a computer to make new hide shoes."  ;-)

This is the use of personas, use cases, and professional usability
tests, to show how *real* people use a computer.

> 
> > Only testing people who've never used a computer would bias the results
> > towards a user base that is all but non-existent for large segments of
> > the GNOME target user base.
> 
> No. It would bias the results towards usability, instead of perceived
> usability (ie, user used to do something someway in another OS).

That doesn't make much sense.  Usability doesn't mean, "someone who has
no idea what the hell they're looking at will suddenly understand it." 
It also doesn't mean, "It's familiar."  If a user has never used a
computer before, they're not even going to know what a file is, so why
worry about the file selector there, eh?  ;-)  They're not going to be
used to using a mouse, clicking buttons, recognizing icons, or anything.

Having recently had to help train a couple of real computer newbies (A
lot of people around here that are voted into the job, and many of those
people have never needed or wanted to use a computer before.  Some of
them still *refuse* to use most modern technology.  I am not joking
about this.) I can tell you that any of the proposed selectors is just
fine.

The Sun guys (not to mention the Ximian folk, who I know also do
usability testing) are amazingly talented professionals, and I for one
trust that they are doing their jobs properly.  ;-)

> 
> > That said, this is getting off-topic.  If nobody has any *real*
> > usability tests for the file selector, we're still at square 0.
> 
> And that won't happen without actually implementing something :)

Usability tests don't need code implementations.  I've read several such
tests carried out using paper.  (One of which was with an older version
of the new selector, this is probably in the list archives somewhere.)

> 
> Rui
-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.