Re: [Usability]List policy, usability leadership, mission statement [Was: "widget"]

[Luis Villa <louie ximian com>]

On Wed, 2002-07-31 at 10:56, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> The concrete tasks probably include:
> 
>  - changes to the HIG; there has to be a process for this, and a clear
>    maintainer or team who can and does make decisions
> 
>  - UI review for HIG compliance, resulting in filing bugzilla reports

IMHO, ATM, these two are the most important things the UI team can do.
There must be docs developers and testers can use and refer to /early/
in the 2.2 development cycle if we're going to get any progress on
making usability something that GNOME takes to heart.

>  - user testing
> 
>  - reviewing prior art and/or studies and posting results

Both important but not something, IMHO, that should be focused on until
basic groundwork is laid with the HIG.

> Long threads arguing the merits of XYZ in the abstract, or where
> everyone posts their vote on what they personally use, are just not
> useful. I don't think those threads will ever go away, they're a fact
> of life, and honestly they are fairly harmless. 

They're pretty painful for people who don't habitually deal with
hundreds of pieces of email a day. I'd have no objection making this a
moderated list, granted that moderators were (1) prompt and (2) utterly
fair in their moderation. By fair I mean tolerant of dissenting opinion,
presuming said opinions were phrased constructively and positively.

> If we can make UI decisions (instead of punting and making it
> configurable or whatever), and can communicate those decisions (by
> documenting them in HIG and bugzilla), then we have something that
> works.

Agreed. The challenge of leading this team is, IMHO, the biggest problem
facing GNOME right now- we want to move forward on usability of the
desktop, the hackers need guidance and help, and no guidance and help is
forthcoming. 

So... if everyone is going to have their two cents... give that two
cents on the subject of 'how to organize gnome usability.' :) It's
important. Really. Not like widgets. :)

Luis