usability feedback.

[Alan Horkan]

On Sat, 6 Aug 2005, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 22:05:29 +0200
> From: Boudewijn Rempt <boud at valdyas.org>
> Reply-To: "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>
> To: "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>
> Subject: Re: usability feedback.
>
> On Saturday 06 August 2005 21:58, Thomas Zander wrote:
>
> > In KOffice the class to do that is; KoUnitDoubleSpinBox
> >
> > That widget probably needs some more love, but for consistency thats
> > definitely the way to go.
> > I just tried it and there are still bugs in that widget with the automatic
> > conversion. As I said, it needs some love, and we probably want to add
> > things like "50%" as well.  But all that can be done koffice wide, and is
> > on the TODO list for 1.5 anyway.
> >
> > ps. In photoshop this feature exists as well; and arrow up/down work as
> > well, even though there are no buttons like on a spinbox.
> > You can type '50%' in the photoshop input dialog; as well as silly things
> > like '5pt' if you want.  They get converted for you when you press OK.
>
> Gosh... I know I bragged the other day of still being able to impersonate a
> Real User (even when not being inebriated by drinking Real Ale in the

mmm real beer...

> presence of Real Cats) -- but even as a Realish Developer, this is a feature
> I'd never ever have guessed to exist either in KOffice or in Photoshop. Gosh
> redux...

here's where I take the conclusion I've already made about this being a
bad idea and try and say something academic sounding to convince you.

Just because it is possible doesn't make it a good idea.
If both Boudewijn and I failed to notice this feature it is safe to
say there is a (usability buzzword:) discoverability problem.

If a widget is for entering numbers it is not a good idea to make it look
exactly like a Text entry.  Having sublte differences in the entry widgets
is good (usability buzzword:) affordance, and gives uses clues about how
to use it.  Mixing text and numbers probably makes input checking
needlessly complicated for the developers and doesn't really benefit the
users.

There is a belief system called Solipsism[1], everything you know may be
nothing more than an elaborate illusion, what you see is all that exists.
So too is it similar with features in software.  If you cannot discover
them and do not know they are there, then they may as well not exist.

The combination of watching both "Donnie Darko" and "Harold and Kumar"
has me in a philisophical mood, and it is fun to see if can convincingly
pretend I'm not making this all up as I go along and maybe I do know
what I'm talking about ;)

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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[1] Solipsism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism