Hi, welcome to the ux-mailing list! As some of you may ask themselves, why we needed to change from usability to ux, which stands for user experience, here are some answers: We want to shift our focus from pure usability work, which basically means firefighting on existing products, towards the creation and redesign of our tools and applications. We (and many of you, too) recognized that some of our tools and applications haven't changed since the last years and might not always offer a pleasant experience to the user. So our purpose is to create a new experience for openSUSE. Besides that we will also continue with the usability work. But we will also discuss and present some design ideas. All our project will be available on http://en.opensuse.org/UX Let`s think big! Enjoy, Martin -- Martin Schmidkunz User Experience Specialist martin.schmidkunz@novell.com +49 (0) 911 740 53-346 ------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) ------------------------------------- Novell, Inc. SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 Your Linux is ready http://www.novell.com/linux -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org
On May 02, 07 16:10:30 +0200, Martin Schmidkunz wrote:
All our project will be available on http://en.opensuse.org/UX
Let`s think big!
This is tempting. :-) Okay, you got me hooked. Our graphical user interfaces GNOME and KDE have been growing in functionality for quite a while. I still consider myself KDE-Beginner as I spend very little time in learning the GUI or checking out new features. I have established a screen layout of a few xterms and a browser, which has been working fine for my daily tasks for several years now. So, from a beginner perspective, I often experience difficulties operating the GUI itself. One typical problem is locating the correct settings dialog for the change I intend. Example: I know I can switch focus from window to window using Alt-Tab. What is the supposed route a beginner should take to locate the corresponding menue or dialog screen? In general, I experience lack of controllability with our GUIs. Many presumably simple tasks are quite complex (3 different dialogs interact for Alt-Tab) and often involve nondeterminisitic search methods (like asking an expert, or google). Is there a systematic approach on how to survive growing complexity? Aren't there some good concepts or paradigms out there that could be applied? The good old desktop metaphor no longer really works. I never had a desk with so many knobs and switches. Operating a Desktop more and more resembles an airplane cockpit. With airplanes, complexity is okay, because pilots are well trained experts for their user environment. Computer users are not. cheers, Jw. -- o \ Juergen Weigert paint it green! __/ _=======.=======_ <V> | jw@suse.de wide open suse_/ _---|____________\/ \ | 0911 74053-508 (tm)__/ (____/ /\ (/) | __________________________/ _/ \_ vim:set sw=2 wm=8 SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) "Oral agreements are worth about as much as the paper they are written on." -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org
* Juergen Weigert
I have established a screen layout of a few xterms and a browser, which has been working fine for my daily tasks for several years now.
So, from a beginner perspective, I often experience difficulties operating the GUI itself. One typical problem is locating the correct settings dialog for the change I intend. Example: I know I can switch focus from window to window using Alt-Tab. What is the supposed route a beginner should take to locate the corresponding menue or dialog screen?
In general, I experience lack of controllability with our GUIs. Many presumably simple tasks are quite complex (3 different dialogs interact for Alt-Tab) and often involve nondeterminisitic search methods (like asking an expert, or google).
Is there a systematic approach on how to survive growing complexity? Aren't there some good concepts or paradigms out there that could be applied?
I have been using kde for some 5+ years and have similar difficulties. I prefer the commandline and am constantly hunting for not-frequently-used key combinations to accomplish simple tasks. It would be nice to have a simple text file, with graphical access for those who prefer, summating default key-combinations for desktop/?term tasks. -- Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA HOG # US1244711 http://wahoo.no-ip.org Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 OpenSUSE Linux http://en.opensuse.org/ Registered Linux User #207535 @ http://counter.li.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org
On May 02, 07 13:13:35 -0400, Patrick Shanahan wrote:
I have been using kde for some 5+ years and have similar difficulties. I prefer the commandline and am constantly hunting for not-frequently-used key combinations to accomplish simple tasks. It would be nice to have a simple text file, with graphical access for those who prefer, summating default key-combinations for desktop/?term tasks.
Don't ask for a text file. Think big. A documentation file will soon be outdated (and false documentation is worse than none). I'd ask for introspection. The way to get the most accurate description is to ask the system. Do we have a way to query applications for the keybindings they support? cheers, Jw. PS: I am afraid that compiling a list of all desktop default bindings is non-trivial, as keystrokes pass through numerous software layers, and mappings and bindings can happen at any level. -- o \ Juergen Weigert paint it green! __/ _=======.=======_ <V> | jw@suse.de wide open suse_/ _---|____________\/ \ | 0911 74053-508 (tm)__/ (____/ /\ (/) | __________________________/ _/ \_ vim:set sw=2 wm=8 SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) "Oral agreements are worth about as much as the paper they are written on." -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org
On 5/2/07, Juergen Weigert
On May 02, 07 13:13:35 -0400, Patrick Shanahan wrote:
I have been using kde for some 5+ years and have similar difficulties. I prefer the commandline and am constantly hunting for not-frequently-used key combinations to accomplish simple tasks. It would be nice to have a simple text file, with graphical access for those who prefer, summating default key-combinations for desktop/?term tasks.
Don't ask for a text file. Think big. A documentation file will soon be outdated (and false documentation is worse than none).
I'd ask for introspection. The way to get the most accurate description is to ask the system. Do we have a way to query applications for the keybindings they support?
Settings -> configure keyboard shortcuts in any KDE app will give a searchable list of keybindings for that application, and allow you to change them. And there's of course kcontrol -> regional & accessibility -> keyboard shortcuts /input actions for global ones. _ Benjamin Weber -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org
Den Wednesday 02 May 2007 17:58:16 skrev Juergen Weigert:
Our graphical user interfaces GNOME and KDE have been growing in functionality for quite a while.
I believe GNOME removes at least as much functionality as they add.
The good old desktop metaphor no longer really works. I never had a desk with so many knobs and switches. Operating a Desktop more and more resembles an airplane cockpit. With airplanes, complexity is okay, because pilots are well trained experts for their user environment. Computer users are not.
This is one of the strengths of GNU/Linux - we offer different desktops, unlike our biggest competitors. So if you want a powerful desktop/cockpit you can choose KDE, if you don't there are other options. No need for dumbing KDE down. However steps are taken for KDE4 to make it a little more grandmother-friendly it seems. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Benji Weber -
Juergen Weigert -
Martin Schlander -
Martin Schmidkunz -
Patrick Shanahan