Review Request 108686: hidden items in context menu: usability question

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Monday 18 February 2013 18:37:21 Myriam Schweingruber wrote:
> Thomas, this is about http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/108686/
> 
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 3:29 PM, Edward Hades Toroshchin
> 
> <edward.hades at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 02:22:14PM -0000, Bart Cerneels wrote:
> >> Yes I am, it's nice and cool here. Don't have much chance to check the
> >> commits though. Shouldn't this review have been closed already?
> > 
> > Guys, I propose using our mailing list more, and IRC less. Otherwise
> > such things happen: we discussed something on IRC, and Bart wasn't aware
> > of that.
> > 
> > Bart, I've committed the hint before the review. Then strohel asked me
> > to open this review to ask the usability folks to help. Which I did.
> 
> Well, the problem with the usability list is that the people who
> answered so far are NOT usability specialist, I have yet to see a
> single answer by a real specialist, all I see so far are users
> subscribed to that list. Maybe Thomas could shed some light on who on
> the usability list really knows what they are talking about.

Sorry, I don't really know who on the list is a usability expert and who 
isn't, either. There was one comment by one person who I know is an expert, 
though: Björn Balazs. However he seems to have hoped to get away with a simple 
"+1" to Wyatt Epp's review, which probably wasn't all that helpful for that 
discussion.
I do agree with him and Wyatt, though. Modifying a context menu with shift is 
neither established nor good practice. The fact that Windows uses it for 
switching from "move to trash" to "delete" doesn't mean it's good. Shift+del 
is a combination for permanently deleting that many users know, so they are 
more likely to try it with shift+clicking the context menu entry as well, but 
even that doesn't make it any good.
If a function is rarely used by "normal" users and is potentially 
irreversible, it simply should not be in a context menu. Hiding it behind a 
different "mode" activated by the shift key is not the solution.
 
> Regards, Myriam
> 
> PS. there used to be rules on the usability mailing list that
> outsiders should shut up, but apparently these days are gone :(

Hm yes, that's a bit of a problem. I don't really know how to solve it, 
though. KDE doesn't require a formal education in computational engineering 
for developers either, so we can't really say "Unless you've got some sort of 
certificate for being a usability professional, don't post your comments".
I do agree that a host of contradicting comments from the list members doesn't 
help developers who are looking for a clear statement at all, I just don't 
know how we can fix that.
I think the original idea was to first discuss a review internally within the 
list and then post an agreed-upon statement to the review request, but nobody 
adheres to that rule :(