Re: [Usability] myself

[Phil Bull <philbull gmail com>]

Hi Thilo

> A good Linux using GNOME could have the following:
> 1. after the start epiphany is starting with a local page about the
> distribution and GNOME. Like in GIMP maybe there should be some starter
> tips. There should be made a difference between
> a) Users that already have GNOME.
> b) People interested in getting GNOME.
> 
> The a) Users need to know things like:
> 
> How do I
> 1) burn a CD
> 2) isten to Music /watch movies
> 3) browse windows network
> 4) use the web
> 5) use email
> 6) organize my data
> 7) configure GNOME
> etc.

Windows (XP) has a 'Help & Support Centre' which combines help files
and handy little Howtos such as the ones you mention. While in general
the quality of the articles varies between crap and uninformative, and
crap and over-technical, I'd like to see more use being made of Yelp
to provide a similar type (but hopefully better quality!) of service
for GNOME.

Does Yelp even have full text search yet? I know it was being planned,
but releasing a help system without a search function is ridiculous!
Most users simply won't use it unless they're desperate - the user
should be able to browse the help system at their leisure, to learn
more about something they're interested in.

I suppose, for new users, a handy little 'Help' icon could reside
somewhere on a panel by default. Click it to get a (jaw-droppingly
beautiful) search dialog, after it's finished searching it pops up
Yelp and shows you a list of documentation/guides/howtos which match
the search string.

Even better/worse, it could display help files related to the
currently focused app or a task you're performing within the app, when
clicked.

Of course it would all need to be configurable (sysadmins don't want
to find 'how to create a new file' in their list of recommendations
and nor do most users want to find 'debugging a crashing application'
on their list).

A 'Help' item in Prefs and a slider to choose between 'Beginner',
'Intermediate' & 'Advanced' users, or maybe even a list of checkboxes
with the categories of help you're interested in viewing (a la
customisable Google News) would be nice.

And then a tickbox for 'Use the 'Help' icon on the panel'.

Windows Help & Support Centre - 
http://www.loyola.edu/bin/j/n/windows_help.jpg

Yelp (es) - 
http://pulsar.unizar.es/gluz/manual-gluz/shots/Pantallazo-Yelp.png

-- 
Phil Bull
philbull.tk