[Kde-accessibility] Re: feedback on usability, a crazy idea

Datschge@gmx.net Datschge@gmx.net
Fri, 6 Dec 2002 01:46:24 +0100 (MET)


On Wednesday 04 December 2002 08:56, Troels Tolstrup wrote:
> On Onsdag den 4. december 2002 14:16, Pupeno wrote:
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> > I have just had this idea, to get (automatic) feedback on usability.
> > Of course, all this should work transparently and with the user's
> > acknowledge (and deactivated by default).
> > The idea is to store each time the user uses the what's this system.
> > Because that shows where the user is intrested in and didn't
> > understood completly by the UI. And what's more important, store the
> > missing what's this that the users want.
> > And if we think forward, we could add a couple of buttons: Did this
> > comment help you ? so, we'll know if the user got the help by the
> > information he got (I think that could be applied for general
> > information and documentation too).
> > Then, the stored information is mailed to the usability team, or some
> > special kde e-mail address for this porpouse, anything.
> > I repeat, this should work as transparent as posible with acknowledge
> > of the user and not activated by default but with BIG dialogs asking
> > for activation of it, the reason, etc, etc. Even the log of what's
> > going to be sent should be easily accessible by the user, and the
> > sending of it, confirmed by the user.
> > What do you think ?
>
> The only flaw i could think of is that im not really convinced that many
> users are using the whats this system at all.
>
> Im basing this on the fact that i dont think i have ever seen anyone use
> it, and i dont tend to do so myself either as i simply forget that it
> even exists and try to rely solely on tooltips. Im basically of the
> oppinion that whats this is a nice idea, but too invisible so i doubt
> anyone would find it unless they are told how to do it, and even then
> it is very easy to forget about it again.

I think it's really a pity that the "what's this" system is barely used, it
could be a much quicker and easier to use & understand help system than the
current help system will ever be.

My proposal regarding this problem would be:

- Offering "what's this" help bubbles as alternative tooltips which can be
de-/activated instead using the current time wasting procedure of having to
activate "what's this" first, then clicking an UI element just for finding
out
that there's no information on it. (I think former approach is used by Apple
while latter approach is used by Microsoft where "what's this" is barely
useable as well.)

- Offering "what's this" de-/activation globally in KDE (eg. offer such a
button in the kicker) and suggest to anyone writing/maintaining KDE apps
that
the classical help doesn't need to be complete but it's strongly
suggested/obligatory to have a complete "what's this" help (this might be
especially
interesting from the accessibility project's point of view since "what's
this"
help texts basically give additional information about the program's
interface
which then could be transmitted to disabled people like blinds).

- When this is done then I'll agree that Pupeno's proposal is a great idea
to more effectively find further weak point accessibility/usability wise in
the overall UI design. In that regard I strongly disagree with Christopher
Warner, in contrary to him I even think a system like that should be
integrated
into Bugzilla where we from the usability and accessibility list then can
review it and either discuss it or, if it turns out as being a bug, forward
it to
respective authorities.

In the end these proposals are only some small pieces of creating the
necessary infrastructure for KDE's usability and accessibility departments 
to
become similarly streamlined and effective like software development has
been
before (our current system still work due to the small amount of people
involved
in and acring about usability and accessibility, but this should and
hopefully will change).

Best regards, Datschge

PS: CC me since I don't get kde-accessibility mails, thanks.

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