Re: [Usability] user levels, etc.

[Luis Villa <louie ximian com>]

On Mon, 2001-11-12 at 20:36, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> <quote who="Luis Villa">
> 
> > Participants in psychological testing are also paid. And there is still
> > heavy, heavy concern with selection bias. It's not about money, it's about
> > time and opportunity. There is an extremely extensive literature on this
> > that the UI people I've known (not really having a psych background)
> > ignore.
> 
> I didn't do psych for long enough to get hit with this; I'm interested in
> some pointers though. If you think it's on topic, send to the list,
> otherwise send direct. Thanks. :)

I'll see what I can dig up; it's been four years, though, and what
notes/photocopies I have are in my mom's garage in Miami. So... don't
hold your breath :)

> > > Did we actually get any really good usability testing done on this? Did
> > > Eazel? I really do agree that ~ as the desktop is better. *Hackers* may
> > > have a lot of files in their ~, but everyone else? :)
> > 
> > As an aside (because I don't think this has much to do with the main
> > discussion) the hackers I know who have tried this actually love it
> > because it forces them to clean up ~, which makes them more productive in
> > the long term.
> 
> Mmm, strangely, I didn't understand what the attraction to having it as a
> non ~ directory was until someone explained that they would have a very
> messy desktop.
> 
> ... "So clean it up, then?"
> 
> ;)

:) Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something you can argue either way. I
only bring it up as an example because it's one of those things where
the obvious solution may not be the best one.

> > Yes... but... simplicity and minimalism are not tied that tightly. I agree
> > 100% wholeheartedly with simplicity. And I agree that there are cases
> > where no matter how much work is done, one can't have the seriously crack
> > pipe options and simplicity. So minimalism shouldn't be rejected out of
> > hand. But it shouldn't be the final arbiter except when there are no other
> > options.
> 
> I would like some other views on this... Anyone have any interesting tidbits
> from the likes of Alan Cooper and Jakob Nielsen on this?

Yeah, I'd love to see real thoughts on it too. I'm just pulling it out
of my ! #  Granted, I feel strongly about it and usually have good
intuition about this sort of thing... but I've never done any 'real' UI
work. 

> > >   "USABILITY is COMMUNISM: Have you, or have you ever been interested in
> > >   GNOME usability?"
> > 
> > :) brand me a red, then.
> 
> Hurrah! :) We will have to leave Maciej to his crazy, gun-totin',
> libburtarian ways then. ;)

Hehe.
 
> > BTW, just to make it clear- I'm in this conversation not to flame people.
> 
> No way - your approach and perspective is absolutely worth thinking about,
> even if on face value, some of us may not agree. [ It is far too hard to
> think about holistic usability issues without having a lot of perspectives
> thrown at you, so listening is very important. Unless crack is involved. ]

I'm from Miami originally so it is always good to suspect crack and
other Latin American imports.

I guess what troubles me about participating in this discussion is that
I have very few constructive suggestions. I agree, for example, that
nautilus's approach to this problem is a little clunky, and I also know
that the new gnomecc approach (put advanced stuff in a separate package)
is way overboard. But that leaves us with a lot of middle ground, and no
constructive suggestions from me. Sorry...
Luis