Re: [Usability] Notifying about expected things

["Matthew Nuzum" <newz bearfruit org>]

On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 7:19 AM, raw sausage <rawsausage gmail com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I recently reported
> (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=406433), my point being:
> "Why does gnome-network-manager spam me each time it connects to wlan
> with a libnotify-popup?

> This behaviour does not seem very good usability in my humble opinion.
> Announcing a normal most usually expected event

> I have only one focus, and I value it. Distractions can be quite bad
> (see what happened to for instance aircraft cockpits for the same reason btw)

I am not the foremost expert in the matter, but I will say as someone
who has done several usability studies watching users as they perform
tasks in various applications that you sometimes have to make a choice
as to which use case you want to optimize for. Some use cases you have
to consider are:

 * Discoverability/learnability for new and novice users
 * Productivity of power/frequent users
 * Accessibility for users with a visual or motor skill impairment

Sometimes you can find a way to satisfy all of these use cases. Other
times you have to choose a trade-off. For example, maybe you'll say:

 * If we optimize for the novice user what is the impact on productivity?
 * If we optimize for productivity what is the impact on the novice user?

And then choose the lesser of the two evils. Research by others that
I've read shows that optimizing for the novice user is often better
for productivity so you can kill two birds with one stone by favouring
that use case.

Since wireless networking has been one of the traditional challenges
for Linux desktop users I feel it is appropriate to optimize for the
novice user. If in doing so then we cause a distraction then I would
suggest you file a feature request asking for the option to disable
network connection notifications. Even then you might want to make
sure to carefully explain the use case for such a feature. I'm not
sure that most people have the problem you're reporting. Maybe it's a
corner case in instances where a person has poor wifi coverage that
frequently connects and disconnects.

I'm not one of these cases (though I do use wifi for my network
connection 99+% of the time) but if I were I would appreciate knowing
when I had a connection so that I could perform online tasks. Also in
the presence of multiple hotspots I would enjoy knowing I'm connected
to a network I trust. Therefore I would be negatively impacted by
having no notification bubble.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode