unity-design team mailing list archive

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 06/03/2011 03:21 AM, Remco wrote:
> So, for as long as I can remember, people have been asking for a
> welcome screen in Ubuntu which is presented when a new user first logs
> in. Today, I started Help and was amazed by how straightforward this
> looks. This is what needs to be started on first boot!

First boot and first login of a "new" user are meaningless.

What if Eve installs a system for Adam to use? What if George creates 
another account to test something? What if Brunhilde installs her 3rd 
iteration of Ubuntu?

What if Vladimir really does login for the first time on his first 
Ubuntu system, but will feel belittled by anything that looks like 
hand-holding and gets in the way of exploring everything himself 
immediately?

Part of making a system feel consistent, reliable and predictable is 
avoiding special cases. A different behavior triggered once is like 
magic ...

While one could say that it should be very obvious and straightforward 
to access help, that could come at a cost of something else that might 
be used more often. None of the people I observed using computers ever 
brought up help, despite that a number of them could have benefited from 
it. My experience there matches observations and self-reports from others.


--
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/