Re: [Usability] Re: making the conceptual model more concrete

[Luis Villa <louie ximian com>]

On Mon, 2003-07-07 at 17:10, David Adam Bordoley wrote:
> From: Wesley Leggette <wleggette iit edu> 
> 
> > 
> > So if you were to write some sort of new HIG for a document centric
> > model, what would it look like? 
> > 
> 
> The HIG is mostly a technical layout guide and provides some good basic 
> metholodgy for describing how apps should internally interact with the user. 
> It really does not address the issue of user interaction model at all. I 
> suspect that the biggest changes will occur in the menus section. Most 
> likely dropping items that no longer are needed and adding new ones. (quit 
> is already recommended for deprecation in the draft hig for instance.) 

I think you're missing the point, Dave :) The point (at least for me,
mind you ;) is not 'does the HIG address model and methodology.' I agree
that that is probably inappropriate. The point should be 'what would a
doc that addresses GNOME/Free Software models and methodology look
like'?. Better yet- 'where is that doc'? 

Usability in GNOME is going to continue to be stymied if the models and
methodologies live only in certain people's heads. That information
needs to be structured and written down so that others can read, learn,
and contribute in a structured and constructive manner. I suggest a
thorough re-reading of Havoc's posts last week, which said this far
better than I can. If you (or anyone else) wants to do work that will
have serious, long term impact on GNOME, that's how it has to happen-
methodology and documentation. The HIG was a great start in that
direction and has already made a huge impact. Similar documentation
about other methodologies for design in GNOME will be needed for us to
take the next step.

</rant>

Luis