Re: [Usability] Project Hamster - question on wording

[Toms <toms baugis gmail com>]

Thanks for input everyone (no input also counts)!

After much thinking i figured that the past tense in question dilemma
can not be solved elegantly, really.
Today finally it came to my mind, that it is a reminder, a
notification, an egg-timer, if you will - something that says "the
specified amount of time has passed and i'm doing what you told me to
do",
so i reformulated question into statement, and now instead of "Are you
still working on ..." it reads "Working on ..." with option to stop
tracking or switch tasks - feels much more natural.

Dan, your insight also helped to figure the whole thing out!

Toms


On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 2:48 PM, Dan Brickley <danbri danbri org> wrote:
> Toms wrote:
>>
>> Hi there!
>>
>> We are currently implementing a reminder notification thing in
>> hamster, here is how it looks:
>> http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/187829/still%20working%3F.png
>>
>> So, basically, after user configurable amount of time, user is
>> reminded that hamster thinks that he or she is working on the current
>> task.
>> User has option to switch to other task, stop tracking current task,
>> or just ignore the notification.
>>
>> I was wondering if the actions and wording sound right - any suggestions?
>
> My first reaction (as a potential user) was 'oh, neat! i'd like that...' (re
> the app in general). Looking at the screenshot, I feel an immediate sense of
> frustration: the computer is asking me a yes/no question, but gives no way
> to directly answer it.
>
> In the screenshot I see...
>
>        Q: 'Are you still working on Hamster?'
>        obvious actions: [Switch task], [Stop tracking] and [x]
>
> versus something like [I stopped], [I switched tasks], [Quit watching me!],
> ie. actions that relate more directly to the question asked. I'm not
> proposing those exact words, just noting that there's no way at the moment
> to give a "No!" or "yes" response. "Switch task" is an implicit "no".
>
> It would be interesting to know whether these notifications often serve as
> the *trigger* for users to switch tasks, rather than as a passive enquiry to
> see what the user is currently doing. If this is the case, the dialog is
> something like:
>
> computer: Are you still working on Xyz?
> me: erm, well I was, until you remind me right now that maybe I ought to be
> doing something else.
>
> At this point, a yes-no question is a little meaningless if it asks what the
> user is doing right now, since the user is contemplating whether to switch
> tasks. I have no idea what better wording would be, but if the reminder asks
> a question, it should be clear whether it is about the past or the future. I
> think that aspect is at the heart of my discomfort with the current
> wording...
>
> Does that make any sense?
>
> cheers,
>
> Dan
>
>
>
> --
> http://danbri.org/
>
>
>