On Thursday 07 February 2008, Benji Weber wrote:
On 06/02/2008, Aaron Kulkis
wrote: That's the way we got all that annoying stuff you have
-snip-
To the newbie, that's not annoying, it's FRIENDLY.
We already have an "Online help" icon on the desktop already. While this has been a complete failure due to other problems that we won't go into here, the solution is not having Yet another annoying popup on login. Don't know why it should be a "complete failure" but in regards of Documentation and the different channels of communication it gives IMO an easy access for newbies. If needed we might list the manuals first and not as now as third thing. And I second the opinion against Yet another popup. Michael Have you actually watched inexperienced users using new software? The popups first alarm them "What did I do wrong", then they worry "Is it safe for me to close this?" finally getting rid of it, without actually understanding the content.
Popups on application start have all but disappeared from commercial software because they don't work. The information they generally contain tends to be either something like advanced like keyboard shortcuts that you could look up, or something that should be simple but is in fact hidden in the interface, highlighting a problem in the user interface design. The "ktip" style popups are completely context insensitive, meaning they are an interruption to the user's task.
Making it easier for people to accomplish their tasks and find help when they get stuck is important, I disagree that throwing popups at them will solve anything.
I've noticed problems since 10.0. And instead of fixing it, you guys seem more interested in changing the appearance.
Misplaced priority, if you ask me.
Links to your bug reports?
- KDE tip windows on startup on every program. WTF?! When
I open a "konsole" (the KDE xterm) I don't want to be bothered with that stuff. I want to issue some commands, and probably not just for fun. Get that thing out of my face.
Then click "do not show me again" or whatever it is, and stop whining. That's what I did, and you can, too.
These have to be clicked on every new programme, which gets tedious, and in my experience fairly useless at imparting useful information to new users.
And now let's think again about documentation or anything
else being force-pressed upon the user... ;-)
I cannot fathom your mindset, when it's the onus is on the vendor to make things easier for the newbie user.
Making it easier is indeed important, which is why it is important to do it properly, not just "this seems like a good idea, let's add it". If there were popups for everything someone thought users should know it would be a complete mess.
-- Benjamin Weber
-- Michael Löffler, Product Management SUSE LINUX Products GmbH - Nürnberg - AG Nürnberg - HRB 16746 - GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org