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

["John Sullivan" <sullivan eazel com>]

on 10/25/00 1:20 AM, Kevin Cullis at kevincu orci com wrote:

> 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.

I understand your point, which is that some "preferences" are really just
features that aren't used much, and are thus relegated away to a preferences
dialog rather than being put into a more obvious place in the program.

However, many preferences are not of this nature. For instance, in Nautilus,
whether single-click should select or activate is a choice that is "truly a
preference". It is very unlikely that a single user would switch this back
and forth from time to time (unless they were just experimenting). And it is
a fundamental part of how the user interacts with Nautilus. So it doesn't
seem to have anything to do with the 80/20 rule you mention.

John