Re: [Usability] The New File Selector

[Ryan McDougall <ryan mcdougall telusplanet net>]

On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 11:24 -0500, Anna M Dirks wrote:
> I know that I'm jumping in here at a very late point, Ryan, but -- was
> the new design tested on any users using formal usability testing
> methods? If so, is the data from these tests availble? 


Hi Anna,
	I was never a part of the UI design, I'm just explaining it 3rd person,
so you'll have to talk to Seth Nickell for the details.

> 
> I'm not suggesting that usability testing is a panacea which would
> magically clear up any usability problems with the new ui, but it would
> most definitely provide a set of data detailing exactly how and why
> people are confused. (Which would in turn aid in answering Gabor's
> question below as to how it is decided that a UI is broken.)
> 
> regards,
> Anna
> 
> 
> On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 17:13 +0100, gabor wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 06:40, Ryan McDougall wrote:
> > > Thanks for replying Uri, your mail highlights a lot of common
> > > misconceptions about usability. Often people learn how to become
> > > proficient with a broken UI, and when someone tries to change the UI and
> > > improve it, many users are upset that things don't work the same. They
> > > then conclude that because their productivity has gone down, the new UI
> > > must be broken. 
> > 
> > and who decides which UI is broken and which is not?
> > 
> > gabor
> > 

	To also reply to gabor: "Usability", like Psychology, is not an exact
science. But like Psychology its not all about personal opinion -- there
is plenty of real experimentation and peer review behind the beliefs
that UI guys have. For a taste of those experiments, one should really
pick up text book on usability.

	In specific to the file chooser, no one woke up one day and said "I
decide on an whim that I'm right and everyone else who disagrees is
wrong". There are real elements of design that went into the new UI. On
the flip side, I don't think anyone sat down and rigorously experimented
with multiple file choosers on a large set of "Joe Sixpack"s. However, I
am convinced that the design is basically sound, with some tweaks later
on.

Cheers,
Ryan