unity-design team mailing list archive

[Lance <lbsolost@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jo-Erland,

Great comments over all. I'm not quite a true "noob" anymore because I've been using Ubuntu since Gutsy, exclusively since Hardy, and I've even been iso-testing since about Hardy or Intrepid because I find the installation process to be of such great importance.

Being perfectly honest I found the Natty and Oneiric iterations of Unity to simply be too confusing. I'm not sure how much "dodge windows" had to do with that, I really never understood it very much. Now aside from some slight inconsistency with the global menu I'm finding Unity in Precise to be much easier and faster to use than the classic DE.

No need to learn new keyboard shortcuts, no need to jump through any hoops, searching for apps seems easy - whether by name or function, and if it's simple enough for me to understand that's a major accomplishment. I tend to think everything should just be understandable out-of-box by anyone, then tweaks can be added by those with more technical knowledge. Does that make sense?

Lance

--- On Thu, 3/8/12, Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Unity-design] No more dodge windows in Unity?
To: unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, March 8, 2012, 9:36 AM

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


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