unity-design team mailing list archive

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

Den 08. mars 2012 15:15, skrev nick rundy:
> Of course "new" users find this behavior "deeply uncomfortable" and 
> "random."

Very good reason to drop it. First impressions are always important, but 
they are extremely important when people are willing to give something a 
shot in spite of their skepticism. And this will be the case for a large 
number of people. There is a lot of FUD surrounding Linux. But even if 
users are unaffected by that, they might be skeptical about anything 
that is given away for free. They might try it out of curiosity, but 
they'll be looking for flaws. Give them an opportunity to become 
confused by the launcher, and they will choose to be, because that 
confirms their initial skepticism. And that's comforting, as sad as that 
may be.

Of course, some people are truly open minded. But almost all humans are 
more interested in _not loosing_ than they are in a potential gain.
> For over a decade all users have known is the taskbar hides or it 
> doesn't hide. Nobody in today's world is truly isolated from 
> computers. People pick stuff up unconsciously. And the Dodge behavior 
> is unlike any taskbar action they've ever seen on Windows or Mac. So 
> of course it seems random.

Are you serious? Most people today are truly isolated from computers. 
You're probably from North America or Europe. But we are a small part of 
the world when measured in the number of people. But whether or not 
people are "isolated" from computers, if you give them the impression 
that behavior is random, then they loose confidence. That means reduced 
ability to make decisions, and reduced will to learn something new.
> If Dodge Windows actually stuck around long enough, I suspect the 
> testing results would have been very different.

Seems like you're assuming that people have read up on Ubuntu or know 
someone who uses it. That is a severe limitation. It should be 
sufficient that you hear about Ubuntu, that it's a free system that can 
be tried without having to make any kind of decision in advance.

So you've convinced a user that Ubuntu is easy to download, safe to try, 
doesn't require any decision in advance and won't ever cost any money. A 
curious user downloads it and fires it up. How long time do you expect 
that user to give you? My guess is that they need to be impressed during 
the first ten minutes. If you survive one hour, then the user will have 
nice things to say, whether they decide to use it or not. That's 
important, because then they will make other people curious, and they 
will confirm that it is indeed completely safe to try.

If the launcher isn't completely understood after ten minutes, that user 
will probably not use Ubuntu. They will tell others that it is confusing 
or buggy. And then they will have made a decision not to use it, which 
means it will be extremely difficult to get a second chance.

We need to reach a tipping point, where casual users recommend other 
casual users to just try it. Most people who try Ubuntu should have nice 
things to say about it, even if they choose not to use it as their 
primary OS, or even at all. But they'll say nice things, and then others 
get curious, etc.

This is the effect we need. But that requires that after 30-60 minutes, 
the user will feel confident that this is something they will be able to 
learn if they choose to. There must be no confusion or negative 
surprises during that first hour.

To me, the dodge effect was cool, but it demanded way too much knowledge 
and understanding.

--
Jo-Erlend Schinstad