Review Request: New dynamic bias

[Valorie Zimmerman]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Mark Kretschmann <kretschmann at kde.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 9:32 PM, Ralf Engels <ralf-engels at gmx.de> wrote:
>> And then we have the automatic playlist generator which in principle has
>> the same functionality and a little bit different UI but still a similar
>> amount of filters.
>>
>> So, dumb it down?

First of all, that isn't the choice. Let's keep in mind our vision for
Amarok; helping people rediscover their music. Simple and powerful.

> From a pure UI and usability perspective, having two different system
> (APG and Dynamic) that do somewhat different things, but then again
> not really, is not ideal.
>
> It's already hard to understand what "Advanced Playlist Generator" and
> "Dynamic Playlists" are supposed to mean. I tried to explain this to a
> work mate lately, she is an experienced software engineer. It sounded
> like Spanish to her at first. Now imagine, trying to explain these
> features to really new users, or maybe to your mom.

Grrr, 'your mom.' How about we cut the stereotypes, and stick with "new users?"

> Bottom line: If we don't want Amarok to be a complete nerd tool, it
> might make sense to go back to our original goal with Amarok 2, which
> was "making powerful features easy to use". We used to say: "Amarok 2
> should be able to pass the Mom-Test: If our Mom's can't use it, we did
> not do it well enough."

The choice is not between "uber-complicated and arcane" and
"dumbed-down." The UI needs some work, and we should work towards the
most elegant and powerful dynamic playlist UI we can devise.

Valorie, a mom in Real Life
-- 
http://linuxgrandma.blogspot.com
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