On Thu, 25 Dec 2003, Daniel Borgmann wrote:
On Wed, 2003-12-24 at 22:27, Bryce Harrington wrote:
To summarize, neither Windows nor Gnome are the final authority for us; but both are worth consulting. Where HIG is in minor disagreement with Windows or Mac practices, we should follow HIG (unless doing otherwise brings some sizable benefits). But where following HIG literally might seriously alienate or confuse Windows users, we must be extra careful.
Ideally each decision should be taken based on usability tests with real users, but lacking that, we need to put forward convincing arguments in addition to references to standards or conventions.
Is there ideas we could consider for arranging usability tests with real users? I've never done such a thing but would be willing to try to organize one if there's some good ideas how to do it.
Well, the GNOME HIG was created in part based on "usability tests with real users", so it's more than just a standard. :) Here is a script SUN used for one of such tests: http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/ut1_script.html This might give you a good idea how such a tasklist could look like.
Ooh, cool. Doesn't look like it'd be difficult to create a script like that for Inkscape usability testing. I think we'd want to be more detailed.
Then you'd have to find some real people and put them in front of your computer and Inkscape, seeing how they manage (or fail) to complete the different tasks. Useful tasks could be things like "Draw a curved line between two arbitrary points" and everything else a user should be able to do with the application. :)
We could even provide bitmap pictures of what they're to draw, that they could strive to follow.
Then you'd have to try to get as many people as possible to do that and watch them carefully, so you can understand where they have difficulties or are unsure about something.
The fun part. ;-)
Bryce