Re: [Epiphany] Tabs Jump To pref

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

fre 2003-05-02 klockan 22.09 skrev Erik:
> > > Is it fscking up other code or features?
> > 
> > Please read http://www106.pair.com/rhp/free-software-ui.html if you
> > haven't. It's even linked directly from the Epiphany homepage.
> 
> I keep seeing these articles come up.. But do they take into consideration
> that users will eventually become more familiar with the software they're
> using, and mabey decide to change the way it works a bit, to be more
> effeciant in the way they work.

In general some users will become very skilled in managing the piece of
software, but many won't. Many users are perfectly happy by learning
just enough of the application to get their job done, and leave it at
that, and instead enjoy other things in life.

In fact, I have witnessed many people that even refuse to learn or use a
more efficient way of doing things, simply because it requires
additional training that they are not interested in spending time with.
Also, many times more efficient methods require repeated training to be
remembered, so even users who are willing to learn or are introduced to
more efficient methods to perform a task often forget those if they do
not use the application very often or regularily.

So it's a very dangerous route to assume that users will always, or even
often, become more familiar than with just basic tasks, or have the
desire to become more familiar than that, since that is often not true
(geek users are quite atypical that way).


> I think that's why many features/prefs
> were written in the first place. There was some demand by seasoned users
> for features/prefs.

In fact, and as Havoc also points out, it's not uncommon for preferences
to be present in any random free software application just because it
was present in an ancestor to said application, not because there has
been any documented need or request for it. So it's just old luggage
that grows and grows and gets carried over to the next generation all
the time.
In addition, many free software developers in my opinion tend to have a
very low barrier for what constitutes a "demand" or "need", since they
have no contact with the majority of their user base and estimating how
large that user base is, or how it looks like, is very difficult. So
instead they trust the little feedback they get, from often quite
atypical users, far too much.
So based on my own experience in witnessing mailing lists and the
development direction of applications, I don't quite agree that
everything is based on requests or any other documented need.


> Idealy a new user will climb that learning curve
> and decide the same.

"Ideally" is a quite strange word in this context. "Ideally" I'd like
users to be able to perform the tasks they intend to do with as little
additional learning or other obstacles as possible. That's very much
what usability is all about, so ideally there should be *no* additional
learning required, instead of the opposite.

I'll leave your mail there. I don't see the point in discussing it
further, at least not on this list. Epiphany is an application that has
usability for regular users as one of its most important goals, and has
those goals very clearly marked on the homepage. I don't see how anyone
can miss that part. Discussing the basics of usability, and more general
discussions of Havoc's essay, belongs to other forums.


Christian