unity-design team mailing list archive

[André Oliva <gandreoliva@xxxxxxxxx>]

>
> 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.
>

Totally agree with you. I observed almost the same behavior.


Nobody in this thread has proposed that the best path forward is
> simply to mimic Windows (or Mac OS) just because. However, keeping in
> mind people's past experiences is an important part of designing a
> user interface. People make decisions based on past experiences, and
> those decisions influence how they interact with the interface. I
> believe that not taking this into account is a mistake.
>
> > If anything, people should not be given the impression that they can
> > learn how to use a computer by exploration. It is an exceptionally bad
> > idea.
>
> Why is that a bad idea?
>
> We can't make people read the manual, and not everybody has a friend
> with past experience they can ask when they're stuck. How else are all
> those people going to learn the interface?
>

Also I agree with that. Some people likes tutorials, but generally, people
wants to do things. This is the reason people uses a computer for.
When a UI gets too complicated or has too many things that have to be
learned in a manual, this can happen:

"The Girl Who Didn't Want Ubuntu"
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/08/ubuntu-college-girl-dropping-out-laptop/
And, seriously, that was Ubuntu 9.10. GNOME (with a lot of buttons and
menus). Not Unity. And she simply reacted as many users "different, new = it
may not work". So, the UI has to be simple and clear.


Thinking about 12.04, where is the right place and when is the right time to
get involved in the discussion?




2011/8/27 Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx>

> On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad
> <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Den 27. aug. 2011 15:57, skrev Evan Huus:
> --snip--
> >> Manuals and tutorials are certainly more efficient means of teaching
> >> the user, but I disagree that exploration is entirely useless. I don't
> >> have any data to back up that assertion unfortunately.
> >
> > Sure you do. For many years, it's been not only possible, but
> > easy to encrypt personal files in Ubuntu. But you do need to
> > understand the concepts, even if it is theoretically possible to
> > learn by trial and error. Still, most people don't know how to do
> > it. They do, however, feel uncertain when it comes to privacy.
> > So they have a problem, but do not fix it because they do not
> > know that the solution is readily available. They do want to
> > learn, but they don't. The number one reason is the
> > misconception that computers are intuitive and that they can
> > learn by exploration.
>
> I think this example has actually changed my mind.
>
> I have some serious thinking to do now.
>
> Evan
>
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