unity-design team mailing list archive

[Jan-Christoph Borchardt <jan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 24 March 2010 09:58, Alex Lourie <djay.il@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I'm sorry to interrupt such a nice discussion, but what impact this
> "usability" testing would have?
> No sensible user (at least not the one from general public) would ever read
> the results of such a test.

The usability testing results are not for the public but for the
designers to make a choice.

> Maybe what's required here, is some sort of data collecting on what theme
> people actually use. If majority will use Ambiance (or derivatives), then
> here you have it - it's usable.

No. That would bring in results on what users use, not what they need.
People using ambiance because they updated and do not know how to
change button order or even themes will be stuck with the layout.
Eventually they'll accept it. That says nothing about the usability of
the button placement.

> All that people would care about in buttons
> placement is whether it is convenient or not. If this will end up easy and
> convenient, they will use it. If it will not be easy and convenient, they
> will use something else, maybe not even Ubuntu.
> More technically inclined may investigate the issue or change their theme.
> But majority will just either like it, or not

And finding the most easy and convenient way is the designer’s task
(based on usability tests). It is not about ease of configuration, it
is about finding the best standard configuration.