unity-design team mailing list archive

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 08/27/2011 03:08 PM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad wrote:
> If anything, people should not be given the impression that they can
> learn how to use a computer by exploration.

Aspects that may support the impression that a UI can be learned by 
exploration:
- Visibility of options
- Clearly defined active areas (like buttons that do look like buttons)
- Direct manipulation
- Immediate feedback
- Forgiveness (especially Undo)
- Hints (info-bar messages, tooltips)

Does it seem like a good idea to do away with all that?


From my observations of classmates, fellow students and various other 
users, I see roughly 2 categories of users (putting all nuances aside 
for the moment):
- Those who do learn a lot by themselves by active exploration, by 
trying things out to see what happens.
- Those who don't and tend to struggle even with what is being taught to 
them step by step. They end up barely capable of following a few 
receipts, but if there is any deviation, they are lost.

Of course there are things where you just have to read documentation, 
because of inherent complexity and risks. I don't think window 
management should fall into that category.


> It should be easy to learn, but
> these types of changes does not in any way make a computer more difficult
> to use.

Elsewhere you stated the need to see how this works out in practice, but 
here you make statement you can't back up. It is a fact that closing a 
window via the close button becomes more difficult, if the button is 
hidden at first. The only way how this would not make "using the 
computer" more difficult, would be if something else becomes easier. 
What would that be? The effect of a reduced sensory load? That is a 
possibility, but I have my doubts about the impact.
(I'm ignoring other means of closing a window, assuming that for a 
majority of users, shortcuts for that are virtually non-existent.)


--
Thorsten Wilms

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