Re: On breaking the woohoo barrier...thoughts on how GNOME can get great

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Iain *">

> Kathy's talk on passionate users, Apple's "Mac vs PC" adverts and their
> success with making things cool have shown us that people don't care about
> what a computer can do, but what they can do with a computer (there may be
> more of a difference in my mind, I'm just lacking a good way of explaining
> it). The whole idea that "Here's some cool stuff you can do" rather than
> "this computer can do these 1000 features."

This is the distinction between "features" and "benefits". Apple have always
been good about communicating *benefits* first, features second. I feel that
Microsoft have traditionally done it backwards.

I have been banging on this drum in the Ubuntu community for a while, but I
guess I haven't been banging it sufficiently loud in GNOME: Whenever we talk
about GNOME, we *must* talk first and foremost about benefits, and then back
it up with the features.

> I guess first we need to know who we're targetting. I get a sneaking
> suspicion looking at the apple mac vs pc ads that they realised halfway
> through that they were maybe portraying the mac as too much of a fun
> computer and the PC was the work machine.

(Interesting side note - no idea what their focus group responses were for
these ads, but they've had a pretty distinct negative impression all over
the place. People tend to identify with comedian John Hodgman's dorky guy,
rather than Justin Long's smartarse, 'elitist', slacker.)

> I don't really know what we need to satisfy this mythical user, but some
> of the things my non-computery friends use computers for would be photo
> management and instant messenger.

Linux Australia had a booth at an education expo trade show here in .au, to
talk about FLOSS, share ideas, and get in the heads of education people. I
gave the GNOME pitch to a group of high school girls (who wanted "the cute
penguin stickers"), and figured instant messaging would be a good thing to
show off. I asked if they used IM ("yeah! duh!") and if they were on lots of
IM networks ("yeah, you have to be")... Then I showed them my Gaim buddies,
showing Jabber, MSN, AIM, ICQ. They all wanted it, so I gave them the Ubuntu
CD pack (which includes Windows software on the LiveCD). One of the girls
said, "Well, if Linux has amazing stuff like this that I didn't know about,
then I just want to run Linux."

*And she still does.*

> I'm sure I've forgotten something, and this probably turned into a stream
> of thoughts rather than anything coherent. Oh well

You're not alone - these are very important thoughts that are plaguing many
minds in the GNOME world and are a direct outgrowth from our massive refocus
on usability, benefits > features, making users kick arse, and 'universal
access'. This change in thinking - our collective passion for changing the
way we (and others) think about the FLOSS user experience - is making waves.

People are always asking me why Ubuntu has been so successful so quickly...
The 'Zen of GNOME', and GNOME itself, is a very big piece of that success.

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia           http://lca2007.linux.org.au/
 
  "A problem worthy of attack, proves its worth by fighting back." - Paul
                                   Erdos