Re: [Usability] Evolution 2.0

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

On Sat, 2003-07-12 at 06:32, Jeff Waugh wrote:

> So, I think the Evolution team are already doing an awesome job
> tackling the next big question for GNOME user interface standards:
> "What about the apps?"

Harping back to what I was saying in my GUADEC talk, strikes me there
might be a great opportunity here to document/review the proposed
conceptual model for the 'new' Evolution, rather than diving straight
into criticising mockups (although that's a great way of getting quick
feedback about interaction/missing-feature type stuff).  The larger the
app, the easier it is to make features inconsistent or miss them out
altogether if you're not working from a good conceptual model, and in
turn that will more than likely break or complicate the user's mental
model as they're learning how to use it ("I can drag this to here, so
why can't I drag that to there?").

I expect Anna's already done a fair amount of this in order to design
the mockups in the first place, it would just be great to see some of
that work too so we all understand where the designs are coming from,
and to make sure there are no underlying bloopers that are going to bite
us in future regardless of how cool everyone tries to make the GUI :)

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems