User Usability and Layout Complaints

[Kelly Miyashiro]

Hello everyone,

I've been seeing a lot of solicited user comments on the new layout etc, but
most of these comments are either polarized or not very helpful in coming up
with the best solution to a problem. I don't know if you guys remember but I
sent out an email a few months ago detailing my plans for gathering concrete
evidence of pitfalls and design breakdowns as well as solutions. I sent out
an email to Leinir but I'm not sure if he got it (hope you get this email,
Leinir!). Here is an excerpt of what I wrote:

--
"First of all, I would like to know how usability has been taken into
account in amaroK. I know there has been a lot of layout changes being made,
but how do you guys decide what is usable and what isn't? Do you look for a
common complaint from the users and try to fix it or rely on expert advise?
Or is there no set method of deciding what goes and what doesn't?

I've been seeing a lot of debate about how to release the new layout changes
(beta or wait for new release), and I must say that both of them are not the
best ideas. However, since I came late and those two seem to be the choices
that people are set on, I was hoping to work focus on after the new layout
changes. The reason for this is, controlled user testing of the proposed
changes should be conducted BEFORE unleashing it upon an unsuspecting user
base. If you are going to be relying on a lot of opinions of the users after
they use it, you will be getting a lot of unreliable data and noise and it
will be difficult to decide which complaints are valid and which aren't."
--

I also said that I've had interest from other people in forming a usability
testing team here in San Diego, and I thought that other regional usability
testing would be nice to find cultural differences (since culture is
definitely a factor). For example, someone mentioned that the placement of
the sidebar should be user controlled. Although there will probably be some
small user base that would like it on the right, most left-to-right reading
cultures will want it on the left, much like the logos on most webpages are
best placed in the upper left.

Sorry for the long email!

Summary: How is usability currently addressed in amaroK?

-- 
-Kel
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