unity-design team mailing list archive

[Vishnoo <drkvi-a@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2010-04-22 at 15:53 +0200, Conscious User wrote:
> > That's true, we haven't done as good a job of communication in the past
> > as we could have. But we're working on improving it. For this issue
> > yesterday there were posts on design.canonical.com,
> > markshuttleworth.com, this mailing list, Twitter, and Identica.
> 
> And I thank you and Mark for those, I'm glad to finally have a more or
> less "central" reference to point people to when they ask me what the
> indicators are all about. :)
> 
> > I'm not sure where would be an appropriate place on the Forums to start
> > the conversation as well. Do you have a suggestion?
> 
> The problem is that the issue is not restricted to the forums. Fact is,
> right now a new user has no way of figuring out the functionality of
> the indicators without Googling. I think users need a "getting started"
> tutorial. The installation slideshow is great but its time is limited
> and there is a limit on what can be explained through text and static
> images.
> 
> What would be *great* is a nice *video* screencast introduction. Time
> and technical requirements aside, it would be awesome if there was a
> professional video with Mark himself or <insert famous artist here>
> popping up in the middle of a Ubuntu Desktop, pointing and explaining
> specific features. :)
> 
Hrm. whaaat.. 
Design Communication is essential for the developer community, and for
the designers to layout the future plans , to co-ordinate the design
implementation. This part is improving and the design team's blog is the
start of such improvements.

This should not be of concern for the end-user. This
explaining-my-design-to-user communication should not be a priority for
the design team. Such communications are of little value to the
end-user, user should never have to read a manual to use the indicators.

If the design is so bad it needs someone to explain it first , it is a
design /failure/ .
We should learn what went wrong and improve it , rather than try to
explain why the functionality is limited or behaving weirdly.

If there are such problems of users misunderstanding the indicators and
resorting to google , it is better to file bugs or bring them to the
notice of this mailing list rather than insisting on the designers to
explain it to the user.

-- 
Cheers,
Vish