[Usability]GNOME 2 HIG review

[David Lazaro <david lazaro eresmas net>]

I suppose that the GNOME 2 HIG review is going on. According to Seth is
a continuous process too, so I would like to contribute to this effort
as much as I can.

I am reviewing it currently and will keep doing for the following days
in order to help. I'm very very tired today so I have only been able to
grasp a few sections. I will keep completing the attached document as I
go on with it.

If you find the format inconvenient feel free to suggest a better one.

Review of GNOME 2.0 HIG (CVS draft)
===================================

Reviewer: David Lazaro <dlazaro well com>


This review is based on the draft present at http://developer.gnome.org/gup/hig/draft_hig.


Title page
----------

* Colin Z. Robertson has gotten his name all in lower case. It must be in upper case as the rest of the copyright holders.


Chapter 1. Introduction
-----------------------

* In the first paragraph the target audience is defined as "interface designers, graphics artists and software developers". The first line of the second paragraph says "[t]hese guidelines are meant to help you [WRITE] applications...".

I see that this can be inconsistent because only software developers write applications. The rest of the target audience will not identify their work as application writing.

I propose to change "write" to "design", "design the iterface" or something in a similar vein.


Chapter 2. Usability Principles
-------------------------------

"Design for People"

* In this section there is a list that I think that must be changed to keep an English sentence structure, i.e:

Change this:

?   * who your users are
?   * what you want to enable them to do

to:

    * who your users are, and
    * what you want to enable them to do.

* I find the repetition of "designing an application" in the second paragraph a bit confusing; maybe it can benefit from a rewording.

* I can work on the bibliographic references if you want. It just would need more work than this notes. ;)


Chaper 6. Toolbars
------------------

* Figure 6.4 depicts a toolbar with a close button. According to conversations on the usability mailing list ("GNOME-SEARCH-TOOL" thread, August 2002) that example image must be changed.