Arlo, a little QA comment regarding your interview with linux.com

[Kevin Cullis <kevincu orci com>]

Arlo,

I read your interview with linux.com and I have a few comments.  You and
John made the comments:

John Sullivan: An interesting (and well-known) UI lesson this emphasizes
is: 
John Sullivan: Preferences are fine, but the default setting is
incredibly important 
John Sullivan: Many, many people never change the preferences 
Arlo Rose: Yup, and this is what the first study was all about...
"Default Settings" 
John Sullivan: So if you don't have the defaults right, you're really
ruining peoples' experiences 
John Sullivan: The Linux community is very enamored of preferences 
Arlo Rose: I can think of a few apps I use where they really need to get
their default settings correct. :-) 
John Sullivan: Many Linux apps have a zillion preferences. 

The issue is the "Default Settings," although that's a good term, but I
would think be more accurate saying it's more of frequency of actions:
i.e. the 80/20 rule.  In QA circles the question is always begged: 80%
of the people use 20% of the features, what are the 100% of the features
and what are the 20% features?  That question is answered by noticing
the frequency of use of that feature.

The second question is: of the 80/20 rule, what are the frequencies of
the remaining features?  When that is determined, then it becoms a
matter of placing the rest of the 80% of the features, based on freqency
of use, in places which respond to that frequency?  I.e. the next 20%
belong closer to the user than the last 20%, which should be placed the
farthest (in a Preferences File rather than a menu selection?) away from
the user.

Customization is necessary, but of the rest of the 80% of the features,
how will it be customized?  Find out from the experts how and what they
use their preferred uses are, then figure their requests into the 100%
equation.  Is there an overlap of frequency of features between expert
users and novice? or would they belong in the next 20% batch?

Just some thoughts and I look forward to your document about GUI design.

Kevin

P.S. I'm a former Mac fan since 1984 and the 512ke. ;-)

begin:vcard 
n:Cullis;Kevin
tel;home:720-489-9283
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
adr:;;8285 S Poplar Way #202;Englewood;CO;80112;USA
version:2.1
email;internet:kevincu orci com
x-mozilla-cpt:;0
fn:Kevin Cullis
end:vcard