[dot] HIG Hunting Season in its 3rd Week

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1180273052/

From: Ellen Reitmayr <ellen at kde.org>
Dept: make-kde-more-usable
Date: Sunday 27/May/2007, @06:37

HIG Hunting Season in its 3rd Week
==================================

   Are you fed up with cryptic error messages you don't understand? Then
get involved! This week's target of the HIG Hunting Season
[http://dot.kde.org/1178743323/] is warnings and error messages
[http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Checklist_Warning_Messages].
Read on for more details.

     The HIG Hunting season [http://dot.kde.org/1178743323/] is an
experiment to include the community in the search for obvious
infringements of the KDE Human Interface Guidelines. This week we turn
towards Error and Warning Messages: Most computer users know that
feeling when all of a sudden, a message pops up showing cryptic error
codes. Often, "confirm" is the only option it offers - and users are at
a loss.

     To avoid such situations in KDE 4, we ask all community members to
report warnings and error messages that make no sense, are not
understandable, make use of technical wording, are not constructive or
otherwise annoying. This checklist
[http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Checklist_Warning_Messages]
lists further details and some examples.

     As a dedicated "hunting" for warnings and error messages is
difficult, we ask you to report such annoyances whenever you come across
them during your daily work. We ask you to report them for both, KDE 3.x
and KDE 4 applications. If you don't have the time to report a bug
immediately, create a snapshot and send it to kde-usability-devel
[https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability-devel].

     Reporting Procedure
 Whenever you find a problematic warning or error message (see checklist
[http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Checklist_Warning_Messages]
for reference), create a screenshot. Open a bug in the bug system
[http://bugs.kde.org]. In the title, write "HIG CL3:", in its body link
the checklist
[http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Checklist_Warning_Messages]
and attach the screenshot. Describe the problem you found.
 Alternatively, send the screenshot to kde-usability-devel.
[https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-usability-devel]  On the wiki
page
[http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Checklist+3%3A+Warning+and+Error+Messages]
of this checklist, add a section for the application you reviewed and
link all bug reports you have created.

     Of course you are also welcome to review KDE 4 applications
according to the prior checklists:
    * Configuration Dialogs
    * Text and Fonts


     Happy hunting!