unity-design team mailing list archive

[Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx>]

Den 16. nov. 2011 18:38, skrev Omar B.:
> you are a geek am sure you figure it out in 10 seconds, but i dont 
> think you've actually seen new non technical users trying to use their 
> applications and then getting hidden in that menu:
> https://github.com/emesene/emesene/issues/829
So your argument is that Ubuntu users are incapable of learning and 
understanding that the symbol for IM is now an envelope instead of a 
green dot?
And I actually do know a little bit about new users since I've spent 
about fifteen years helping and teaching people how to use different 
types of technologies. I've worked with elderly, mentally challenged and 
other groups of people with little experience with computers. I do this, 
not only because I like sharing the knowledge I've attained by being a 
geek, but because I like to understand what the difficulties are. Once 
you understand how things work, you can't not understand it.
The problem when people have an agenda, is that they tend to look for 
evidence to support their views, disregard those that doesn't and last 
but not least, project their own opinions onto the people they seek to 
understand. This is why we use the double blind tests, for instance. For 
instance, if you say "Do you think it's intuitive to use the email 
symbol to symbolise other things than email?", most people will say no. 
If you ask "Does it make sense to use an envelope to symbolise a 
message", then the answer might be slightly different.
The bug report you're posting, is completely irrelevant. That is about 
Emesene not understanding that it's already running, which obviously it 
should. But what is it really you're proposing? Should there be a 
constant notification bubble whenever an app is running? Because that's 
what this thread is about, not the symbol for applications running in 
the background.
It takes about ten seconds to explain that all kinds of messages is 
collected in the message menu and that the icon changes color when there 
is a change in status. Once you know this, the system is much easier, 
more efficient and comfortable to use than if you would have ten 
different icons acting in different ways, like we had before.
Jo-Erlend Schinstad