On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Frank Shute wrote:
I do have a problem with people customising their desktops - it's an inordinate waste of time. OK it might be a good way for them to familiarise themselves with the interface but in the long run it means that they'll end up wasting huge amounts of time prettifying and re-prettifying their desktops - I know since I'm guilty of it too. Time and motion studies of people at work at their PCs show that they spend >25% of their time doing just that.
Just to throw a bit more fuel on: I asked the IT co-ordinator at the (primary) school I was visiting today what her opinion was on the issue of locking down the desktops. She was quite adamant that she preferred the students to be able to personalise their desktops because: 1. It got them familiar with using the interface: clicking, dragging, context-sensitive menus, dialogs, tabs, OK/Apply/Cancel etc. 2. It meant they could have personal environments - the students feel that it's more 'their' computer if they can customise it. [ Of course, this would be a very *bad* thing if the students were able to make changes that affected other users, but this is not the case ] I asked about the issue of time-wasting and she said it didn't really happen. Students would change the background every so often when they logged on and decided they were "bored with that colour", but this generally happened during computer club time rather than lesson time. Incidentally, I noticed that KDE's Hue Shift Blending is very popular, possibly because it means everyone can come up with a unique desktop with very little effort. Food for thought... Michael