My Computer

Robert Knight robertknight at gmail.com
Tue Nov 27 15:23:31 GMT 2007


> I haven't seen
> Robert in this discussion so far and it's his code that's in KDE4.

I am no longer involved with Kickoff or the desktop in KDE 4* , but
I'll throw in my 2 pence.

My view is that it is necessary to start by looking at what the tab is
for.  It solves the following use cases:

1.  Joe wants to access his personal documents
2.  Ellie wants to changer her computer's settings
3a)  Mark wants to look at photos on a CD he has inserted into his laptop
  b)  Gordon wants to copy some coursework materials from a friends'
USB key onto his PC
  c)  Robert wants to look at some KDE patches on his removable
external hard drive.
4.  John wants to get information about his computer

1,2 and 3 are the most important.  Kickoff in KDE 3 under SuSE does
(4) as well.  Supposing we have a user who wants to accomplish one of
the above tasks, a name for the tab needs to be a chosen which allows
them to find the right tab quickly.  The emphasis here is on users'
ability to find things - not whether the tab name accurately describes
its contents.  If "Star Spangled Banner" got the best results then
that is what should be used.

I would expect novice KDE users who want to accomplish (2) to get lost
here if I called it "Places" - I don't know for certain, as I do not
have a suitable user to put in front of the computer and test with.
Therefore I stuck with the tab naming from SuSE's Kickoff.  Following
that logic it should be called "Computer", because that is what is
used in SuSE 10.3.

Regards,
Robert.

* Long version here:
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/panel-devel/2007-November/002569.html

On 27/11/2007, Andreas Hartmetz <ahartmetz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Am Dienstag 27 November 2007 14:36:53 schrieb Sven Burmeister:
> > On Dienstag, 27. November 2007, Andreas Hartmetz wrote:
> > > The scientific method is the basis of a meritocracy and it has had a
> > > little success recently. If you *do* perform experiments it's the only
> > > way to go.
> > >
> > > At that point I don't care much about "My Computer" or "Gnorp" but about
> > > unfalsifiable statements derived from "internal" data that nobody can
> > > check. That's not how friendly (yes, friendly! Dammit!) cooperation
> > > works.
> >
> > Did you provide data about Places being the better option? If the only
> > thing that counts for you is data, you should not state anything without
> > backing it up with data. Yet you did, which does not sound consistent and
> > hence people don't understand why you, who did not provide any data for
> his
> > claim, criticise others for not doing so.
> >
> > > At that point I don't care much about "My Computer" or "Gnorp" but about
> > > unfalsifiable statements derived from "internal" data that nobody can
> > > check. That's not how friendly (yes, friendly! Dammit!) cooperation
> > > works.
> >
> > Exactly, but that's what you did. Yo have no data at all against "My
> > Computer" or in favour of Places but still claim that Places is the better
> > choice. At the same time you criticise that others do not provide data for
> > their claim that "My computer" being the better choice. That does not make
> > sense.
> >
> > Please don't claim that rejecting this inconsistent behaviour means that
> > people are unfriendly. I bet that if you come up with data yourself and
> > base your claims and criticism on that, they will listen to you. Or just
> > state your opinion without calling for data if people disagree with it.
> >
> It was just Coolo's suggestion that I do usability tests too which implied
> that he has data and I don't. I don't have data, of course not. I only have
> an opinion.
> And let's forget it, OK?
>
> > Sven
>




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