Re: Logging user interaction with GNOME Shell

[William Jon McCann <william jon mccann gmail com>]

Hi,

Also see:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=584970

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 8:57 AM, Felipe Erias Morandeira
<femorandeira igalia com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> GNOME Shell could benefit from having a better understanding of how
> people are actually using it. The truth is, we don't really have much
> hard data about this.
>
> It could be that people are running into unforeseen troubles or that
> some use cases are not being properly fulfilled. Moreover, it would be
> good to have real-world data with which to validate/challenge our
> assumptions and design decisions.
>
> Lab user testing, while very useful, does not give us the big picture of
> what is like to use a tool for an extended period of time.
>
> The solution that I am proposing is to create an extension to
> gnome-shell that logs as much user interaction as possible for a given
> period of time (e.g. 2 weeks). Besides logging interaction, we might
> want to add an easy way for the user to add comments in case a problem
> appears.
>
> A couple of advantages for this approach are that it could be carried
> out remotely and that many participants could take part on it.
>
> We would gather the resulting data and analyse it statistically, being
> able to answer questions such as:
>  - how many windows are open at a given time?
>  - how are they distributed among workspaces?
>  - how often is the Overview accessed?
>  - how is Search used?
>  - are notifications being missed?
>  - are there problems that can be inferred from the logs?
>  - etc...
>
> (of course, these are just examples)
>
> The goal would be to eventually have a procedure that, while not as
> detailed as other evaluation methods, would fit the characteristics of
> our design&development process and provide us with valuable information.
> We could even run it periodically.
>
> The Firefox team regularly performs this kind of evaluation. For
> instance, they analysed the usage of menu items [1,2] and then used this
> knowledge to guide the design of the new unified menu [3].
>
> This idea is still far from mature and it would be great to have some
> feedback on it. I think that it could really improve our understanding
> of how GNOME is used and help us make it better.
>
>
> Felipe
>
>
> [1] : https://mozillalabs.com/blog/2010/02/menu-item-study/
> [2] : https://mozillalabs.com/testpilot/2010/03/17/popular-menu-buttons/
> [3] :
> https://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2010/07/18/details-about-the-firefox-button/
>
>
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