Re: [Nautilus-list] Results of MIT usability testing

[John Sullivan <sullivan eazel com>]

on 3/2/01 6:10 AM, Susan B. Jones at sbjones MIT EDU wrote:

> At 4:34 PM -0800 3/1/2001, John Sullivan wrote:
>> It's always great to read through usability test results.
>> 
>> I found the notes on this page particularly interesting, and highly
>> recommend that all Nautilus developers read them carefully:
>> 
>> http://web.mit.edu/aui/notebook/beland-usability-notes.txt
>> 
>> 
>> A couple things about this one confused me though. Maybe somebody can
>> explain these?
>> 
>> In the summary it says
>> 
>> Avoid backward metaphors such as popup menus as
>> opposed to dropdown menus
>> 
>> I see no other reference to this in the test results. Is this a complaint
>> about terminology (if so, where does this terminology appear?), or is
>> something working in an unexpected way? (Note that the next sentence of the
>> summary says "Don't allow important information to be covered by popup
>> windows/menus/...", which seems to imply that "popup" is the standard
>> terminology.)
> 
> It's not terminology, it is the actual action that people had trouble with.
> (I too should watch my language, I guess)  the left panel window shade that
> "pops up" and covers other info in the left panel was not apparent to
> testers.  They didn't see the tabs at the bottom of the page.  My
> suggestion is that the tabs be at the top and that one should be able to
> flip through them like a rolodex rather than pull them up like, I suppose,
> a folder out of a file drawer.

I get it. I've heard other people complain about finding this tricky to
understand also. The idea is that the most commonly-used, basic information
appears to be a permanent part of the screen, whereas the more variably-used
different tools temporary cover up the basic information. I think the idea
makes sense but in practice has led to awkward usability. We should consider
having the "basic" info be another tab, and then move the tabs up to the
top, where one of them is always in front.


> \
>> 
>> In the "Using the file manager" section is says
>> 
>> Testers tried to drag file to the desktop. When that
>> didn't work they began to look for a copy command.
>> 
>> Dragging any file to the desktop should work in Nautilus. Do we know why it
>> didn't work for the user test subjects?
> 
> I don't.  Beland? or someone else?

Christopher told us that there was a bug, since fixed, where dragging to the
desktop didn't work in that version of Nautilus with Athena.

> 
>> Later in that section it says
>> 
>> Testers had trouble with the instruction to Copy.
>> Several looked for a Copy command under the Edit
>> menu in the File Manager.
>> 
>> Suggestion: Provide a Copy and Paste commands under
>> Edit that would copy and paste files or at least a
>> Duplicate command. If I duplicate command were provided
>> then testers could duplicate file and drag that to new destination.
>> 
>> Nautilus does have a Duplicate menu item in the File menu. I guess no users
>> looked there? It seems likely that the users looking for Copy under the Edit
>> menu are familiar with Windows. Is there any evidence to suggest that users
>> not familiar with Windows would expect a Copy command in the Edit menu, but
>> not expect a Duplicate command in the File menu?
> 
> Actually, they did, or at least one person did, but the Duplicate command
> was not active, greyed out.

Yeah, oops, Christopher mentioned that too. I'm not sure why the Duplicate
command was grayed out; I suspect a buggy interaction with Athena-style
permissions. It would be nice to know if this works correctly with the
latest version of Nautilus.

> 
> Susan Jones

Thanks for the responses!

John

 
>> 
>> on 2/26/01 9:46 AM, Christopher D. Beland at beland MIT EDU wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> MIT Information Systems has finished documenting its formal usability
>>> testing on a graphical user interface based on Gnome 1.2, Nautilus
>>> PR2, and Linux-Athena 8.4 (http://web.mit.edu/is/athena/).  The
>>> results are available for public perusal; see the below URLs to find
>>> the information you're most interested in.
>>> 
>>> Developers and designers alike will probably be interested in our
>>> findings.  Though all seven users preferred Gnome to the older
>>> Unix-based interface, some did experience problems completing certain
>>> common tasks.  We've offered concrete suggestions on how the new user
>>> experience might be improved.  The AUI project has since moved into
>>> delivery phase, and we are in the process of integrating Gnome with
>>> the Athena environment for our major summer 2001 release.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Test results summary:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/results/results1.html
>>> 
>>> User-by-user issue tabulation:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/results/analysis1.html
>>> 
>>> Personal notes from one observer:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/aui/notebook/beland-usability-notes.txt
>>> 
>>> The test questions as the users saw them:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/test1.html
>>> 
>>> Results of our menu item card-sorting exercise:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/results/menus.html
>>> 
>>> and for more general information:
>>> 
>>> Athena User Interface Usability Testing homepage:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/
>>> 
>>> Athena User Interface Project home page:
>>> http://web.mit.edu/aui/notebook/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks, and we look forward to continued fruitful collaboration.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Chris Beland
>>> on behalf of the AUI and Usability Teams
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Nautilus-list mailing list
>>> Nautilus-list lists eazel com
>>> http://lists.eazel.com/mailman/listinfo/nautilus-list
> 
> 
> 
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