[rkward-devel] Usability: Reading CSV

Wed Sep 30 09:32:56 UTC 2015

Jan:

It was last November, when we were still on SourceForge. Here are the ones
that remain:

1) Installation issues.
>
> [snip]
>
> The struggle I've run into with many Mac users, though, is just that they
> have to install R and then RKWard. This is very unintuitive for people who
> aren't used to installing anything more involved than the Facebook app on
> their cellphones. I.e., "digital native" undergrads. It would be great if
> those could be bundled together again.
>
> With the Windows package, the issue is that it's just a .zip and you can
> run it from anywhere. People really aren't used to that, and they don't
> know how to add a shortcut to the Start
> menu/giant-useless-screen-with-live-advertisements. Also, many people are
> confused/freaked-out when a scary-looking black terminal window comes up
> upon starting it. The Windows package also seems pretty fragile. Most of
> the Windows students have tossed it and reinstalled it at least once. It's
> intermittent, and I haven't been able to reproduce it, but it just stops
> working at some point. The terminal window comes up, and that's all. I'd
> give you guys more information if I had it. Just generally speaking, the
> Windows version is not as reliable as the Mac, I'm finding.
>
>
> 2) Data import
>
> This is just rather confusing. You go to File or the Open... menu in the
> toolbar, and go to Import, and then there are a bunch of options. You have
> "Import Data," then a line, then "Import format," which is a submenu about
> importing data. If you use the first one, it just opens up the SPSS data
> importer, and there's no way to tell it otherwise. I have started providing
> my classes with .sav files for everything to just spare myself the headache
> of pointing out again and again, that they actually need to go to "Import →
> Import format → Import text / CSV data." It doesn't make sense because
> the way that menu is organized, it looks like that is some sort of separate
> function from importing data, because it's under the line separating it
> from "Import Data."
>
> Once they navigate to "Import text / CSV data," however, the problems
> continue, because despite the fact that we've already ostensibly told the
> software that we're working with .csv or whatever, there are a bunch of
> options where we have to tell it again. The default format is "None," and
> the options for the quick formats (which are likely all anyone will need in
> most cases, especially in a class where a teacher is providing the data
> set) are on the bottom left, looking not-very-important. This could maybe
> be fixed just by moving elements around, like putting the format selection
> settings in a dropdown menu at the top, labeled with "Please select the
> format of your data" or something. Then rename "None" to "Custom" and put
> it at the bottom of the list.
>
> Every time I try to use a CSV in class, I import it in front of god and
> everyone on the projector, then demonstrate running the analysis, and say,
> "Okay, is everyone with me?" and half of the students' hands shoot up and I
> go look at their screens and they have the entire table in one column and
> the analysis won't run, of course.
>
> The quickest/easiest fix right away for this would be to just kill the
> "Import Data" entry, rename "Import format" to "Import data format" and
> move it above the line in the menu, separating it from the script options.
> Just doing that would at least avoid the problem of people finding
> themselves stuck in the SPSS format importer, trying to feed it CSV data
> or whatever.
>

It is worth noting that either Thomas or Meik pointed out that the format
could be changed when doing "Import Data," but I hadn't noticed after
several years of using the software, so... Kinda hard to see, maybe.

> 3) Distributions dialogs
>
> I only started using these this semester, so I hadn't noticed, but these
> are unintuitive enough that I decided to just get the students to do them
> in the R Console.
>
> In the "r" dialogs (i.e., the ones that call rbinom and rgeom, etc.), the
> values that will be fed into R are filled in by default. Why? That seems to
> communicate, for example, that the "normal" thing to do when looking at a
> binomial probability is to set the number of "successes" to 0.95, and only
> 1 trial, and with a 50% probability, when actually, these are likely to all
> be different. I think these should just be blank.
>
> "Vector of quantiles" really ought to be renamed "Number of successes."
> I'll be honest here: I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do here,
> so the only way I figured out how to use these dialogs was by clicking the
> "Code" button to see what commands it would be calling, and then reading
> the CRAN documentation on those functions. The CRAN documentation was much
> clearer.
>
> It would be nice if there was another calculator that called the "d"
> functions as well... Not that I've really ever used either of these, but
> they are pretty important for teaching undergraduate stats.
>

[snip!]

5) Plotting issues of various kinds
>
> I can't seem to figure out how to make a grouped barplot out of the Plots
> → Barplot dialog. I've been telling my students to do it via the "N to 1
> Crosstabulation" dialog, where it works fine.
>
> A Q-Q/Normality plot in the Scatterplot dialog would be awesome. The only
> place I can find that in RKWard seems to be one of the options in the
> Scatterplot Matrix dialog.
>
> It would be very helpful if the Scatterplot pulled axis labels from the
> Label header, or, if empty, the variable name itself, for the variable by
> default. Right now you have to enter labels manually. This results in me
> getting a lot of test answers labeled "Xrange" and "Yrange," which I still
> give full marks for if they are obviously the right variables.
>

—There was one more point, but it was addressed already.

I realize it's a big list. This is my 3rd time teaching this class with
RKWard, and despite the bumps, it's still my favorite.

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 3:12 PM, Jan Wort <d_jan at ymail.com> wrote:

> Hi Aaron,
> I can imagine that is causes trouble in class. I wonder - can you tell us
> what  the problems were (what they tried and what they expected) or direct
> me to the previous discussion of the topic?
>
> Users (like students) rarely fail to point out issues one oversees as a
> designer or developer!
>
> Kind Regards
>  Jan
>
>
>
> Aaron Batty <abatty at sfc.keio.ac.jp> schrieb am 23:50 Dienstag,
> 29.September 2015:
>
>
> Jan:
>
> Thanks for bringing these things up; we were discussing them last fall,
> because they cause my students no end of consternation. They have a
> terrible time importing datasets.
>
>
> Aaron
>
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 1:33 AM, jan <d_jan at ymail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear RKWard Devs,
>
> Since I was recently working again more with RKWard (analysing usability
> data…), here are some usability problems I found. I tired to estimate
> how hard they are to fix, so one could focus on the most effective fixes.
>
> I split them in different mails, so that the issues stay separated.
>
> 1) Reading CSV Data
> ===========
>
> First row as col names (easy/medium difficulty fix)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It took me a long time until I found how to get the first row as column
> name. Assumed reason: The checkbox for the option (nicely put on the
> first tab!) is somewhat squeezed between other elements. On Linux it
> looks like it is part of "quick options", on Mac this impression is even
> more extreme, since it resides in some darker-colored box.
>
> Violated Heuristics: Usability, Standards (all other options have some
> sort of headline)
>
> Proposed Fix: Give it a space on its own (an own line) and/or a headline
>
>
> Aside there are several smaller issues I found.
>
> Wordings (Easy fix)
> --------------------------
>
> a) In "Column names in first row" (1st tab) it is unclear if the first
> row is the CSV’s or the resulting data.frame. (Suggestion: "Use first
> line as column names" (?))
> b) "Default": On the second tab there are many "Defaults", but it is
> unclear what this default is.
> c) "Edit Object" (1st tab, save to options): This seems to open the
> object after import in the table view, but it suggests it somehow
> directly changes some object (like a mixin or an overwrite...)
> (Suggestion: "Open after Import" or "View after import")
>
> Active/Inactive Fields (Medium)
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Depended on other fields, some radiobutton options are active or
> inactive. Sometimes it is hard to follow why, and the many inactive
> options irritate
> Possible fix: Using Dropdowns (?) like in RStudio’s import
>
> Preview (Difficult)
> -----------------------
> This is probably hard to implement but a preview of the first 5 or so
> imported lines would be great (also RStudio inspired)
>
> Flow: Call the file selector (easy to medium)
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Before any option makes any sense, I file needs to be loaded. So
> flow-wise it would make sense to open the file picker right away. It
> also would match user expectations, since it is standard in many other
> applications.
>
>
>
>
> Kind Regards,
>  Jan
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