Re: [Usability]Insert/overwrite, how should i do a usability study?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Joaquin Cuenca Abela wrote:

> Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 09:24:25 -0800 (PST)
> From: Joaquin Cuenca Abela <e98cuenc yahoo com>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>, Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>
> Cc: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability]Insert/overwrite, how should i do a usability study?
>
>
> --- Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie> wrote:
> >
> > Some one on the abiword list also suggested the
> > cursor change and it has
> > been approved in theory.
> > Dom fundamentally disagrees with me that it is worth
> > interupting the user
> > about this, which is why i need to produce some sort
> > of imperical data.
>
> Well, I agree with him.  Popping a dialog box just
> because you used the insert button is plain wrong.
> And you don't need scientific studies to prove that,
> usability starts with common sense.
>
> The original user was hopeless.  If you don't know

I am (or was, okay i sometimes still am) that hopeless user.  I have seen
other people have this problem.  People just dont know that Insert will
switch you between Insert Mode and Overwrite mode.  No one ever told them.
Once people have been told this is unlikely to be a problem but every no
again it happens (mis-hit the keyboard near delete/backspace) and i takes
a while to realise what has happened.

i geuss i should use xmod map and disable insert as i hardley ever use it
(when in vim i use 'i').

> that you're in insert mode, even when you realize that
> the cursor is eating your letters, you're lost.

Exactly, you are lost.
How to go about discovering the right solution?
If you are lucky you will have someone to ask and if you are lucky they
will know the answer.
If there was context sensitive Help, and it worked really really well it
might be able to direct you to the answer you are looking for.

> The "change the cursor" hint is a solution to another,
> related, problem.  That's, when the user knows what
> the insert mode is, but he just didn't realized that
> he was in insert mode because the information was
> somewhere far away from your current focus, the
> cursor.

Again i think it is a great idea.  It will certainly make it easier for
more experienced users to diagnose the problem.

I still want to try and help the hopeless, but i get this idea might have
to be relegated to (interactive) tutorials, documentation and the like.

I suppose i am overreacting for what is mostly a once off problem,
although someone asks it every so often on the abiword list (one
person going to the trouble of asking on a mailing list to
me implies possibly many people having the problem).

> Btw, in our usability courses, we only used video
> tapes to:

I was thinking more of an on screen recorder than a video tape.
(Lotus had some sort of a screen cam).

> 2) see and discuss brainstorming ideas ("implemented"
> with paper, not with real software)

I have been advised before that expensive equipment is unnecessary,
A pen and paper mockup of a GUI takes some getting used to.

> Joaquin Cuenca Abela
> e98cuenc at yahoo dot com

Sincerely

Alan H.