Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-ux (48 mails)

[Johannes Meixner <jsmeix@xxxxxxx>]

Hello,

On Nov 12 16:24 Martin Schmidkunz wrote (shortened):
> > On the one hand all other printer setup tools mix up "queue"
> > with "printer" so that users are used to have this confusion
> > in their minds and for compatibliliy reasons we could simply
> > also use "printer" when we mean "queue".
...
> ... we should make a module that is consistent with the
> mental model of an unexperienced user (and the experienced as well).

I assume I misunderstand something but if you really mean that
we should make software consistent with the mental model of the user
even if the mental model of the user is plain wrong,
then I would strongly disagree ;-)

As far as I  know, good usability is when the software creates
the right mental model in the user's mind i.e. a mental model
which matches reasonably to what there actually is in the system
(which does of course not mean an exact match).

Therefore the question is if the mental model of a "printer in the
printing system" matches reasonably to what there actually is in the
printing system: "there is no printer in the printing system".


> So what about explaining the underlying structure to the unexperienced
> user by using some kind of wizard-like dialog (as Johannes suggested in
> his previous e-mail) when the user e.g. adds a new queue?

It seems we come again back to the wizard-style.
Yes, perhaps the step-by-step wizard-style is really better here
than the all-at-once tab-style.

Furthermore I would like to present a queue overview to the user
so that he can for example see remote queues immediately so that
he knows which printers in his network can be used out-of-the-box
without any need to set up a local queue for them.

But how make it clear to the user that there can be several remote
queues (perhaps on several remote CUPS servers) for the same printer?
If the user has the mental model of "printer in the printing system"
in his mind, he might be confused to see more "printers" than real
printers exist?

Or how make it clear to the user the differnce when he uses a
remote queue in contrast to when he uses a remote printer?

Or are perhaps the limitations of the mental model of "printer
in the printing system" so well known that it is clear what
more "printers" than real printers means?

I think that wording like "printers/queues" or "printers (print queues)"
or "configured printers (print queues)" could hopefully match to the
existing "printer in the printing system" mental model of the user
and at the same time it should hopefully make the user aware that
it is queues and furthermore it would better match to the mental model
of an experienced user.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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