[Kde-pim] KOrganizer UI problems

[Timothy Cahill]

I am new here, and I don't wish for my name to become associated with any 
unnecessary excitement, or off-topic postings. I see your name in the credits 
for KOrganizer, and a quick search of the list archives shows that you've 
been a significant contributor for many years.

On October 6, 2007, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> On Saturday 06 October 2007 20:24, Timothy Cahill wrote:
> > In the spirit of Mr. Torvald's eloquent argument for why he prefers KDE
> > to Gnome, I'd like to make a few remarks. As a long time user of
> > KOrganizer, my sense is that due to the many localities and possible
> > range of user preferences, one simply will not be able to come up with a
> > one-size-fits-all choice of sizes, abbreviations, etc. As many as is
> > possible of the look-and-feel items listed by Cornelius could be
> > user-configurable options, in the spriit of KDE's wonderful kcontrol
> > application's Appearance & Themes module. In fact, I would think that
> > where-ever possible, KOrganizer ought to look to kcontrol's settings for
> > its defaults. and be locally overridden as desired.
>
> An interesting blog entry which also touches the topic of configurability
> (using KDE as example):
> http://humanized.com/weblog/2007/10/05/make_oss_humane/.

Thanks for the reference, it is a good read. 

Just as a poor argument can sink a valid premise, a skilled argument can 
overcome the liability of a flawed premise. I can really appreciate an author 
who makes a convincing effort to hold up Emacs as a paragon of excellent GUI 
design! I'd enjoy reading him praise dBase's dot prompt. 

Putting that aside, I am not surprised that a principle KDE developer would 
hold this particular article up for study, because often one can find more 
valuable insight from criticism than praise. And regarding KDE, the article 
has much criticism and no praise at all. From the article:

"MISTAKE 3: LEAVE THE UI DESIGN UP TO THE END USER
To quote the KDE Manifesto: ..."
<snip>
"In reality, too much customization can make an interface harder to use."
<snip>
"Frustrated, I switched away from KDE."
<snip>

The author's points are nuanced and worth reading closely, but, in summary, 
the author, in reviewing KDE's fatal flaws, finds that users usually don't 
know what they want; if they do they're probably wrong; and too much 
customization choice gets in the way of productivity and collaboration. 

I chastized myself for my initial response to the article: "Well, there is 
nothing stopping one who finds the customization options overwhelming from 
using Gnome and Evolution, or the Mac, for that matter". I felt that I needed 
to respect the author's experience and subtlety by reflecting on his message. 
And so, I waited for that full wisdom to settle upon me. It didn't.

Now why does his line of argument not sit well with me? Well, it does not help 
that very quickly into the article, we're told that a successful OSS program 
must have a: "benevolent dictator". That phrase is such an oxymoron that I'm 
sure no one could use it without tasting the bitter irony. A similar line of 
patronizing authoritarian thinking is pervasive in a piece that on the 
surface is all about open communities.

"The sign of a good design is that most people never feel any need to change 
the settings." 

The same thing could be said about beige computers, but it wouldn't be true. 
Any KDE users out there who never want to change the settings?.

The problem, of course, is that good design ( like any other manifestation of 
excellent thinking ) is very rare. It is even more rare to find that everyone 
agrees that a good design is, in fact, good. 

The Mac fills a need, and does that very well. Microsoft also serves a need, 
and Linux exists partly in testament to that. Gnome is an excellent desktop 
for users who just need to get to work, or who are not paid to fiddle with 
things.


>
> I don't think that making it configurable is the right answer to all these
> issues.



Right, not "all". But surely not "none" either. 





-- 
Timothy Cahill
301 Fulford-Ganges Rd.
Salt Spring Island, BC, V8K 2K6

250-537-8409
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