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Gnome 2.6 Usability Review

Posted by timothy on from the depends-which-five dept.

TuringTest writes ""The user-centric UI webzine" UserInstinct has published a usability overview of the latest version of the GNOME desktop. While their conclusions and recommendations are not mind-blowing, it includes two interesting appendices with a survey of new users (and their reactions to the system) and a list of common tasks of modern computer users with a commentary on how Gnome performs in each one. Note that usually You Only Need to Test With 5 Users (this report tests 4), you need to test additional users when an interface has several highly distinct groups of users and thus the conclusions in this review should not be taken as definitive."

3 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I found the "Hesitant User" study most interest by netsharc · · Score: 0, Troll

    * Didn't know how to use Ximian Open Office, so the user closed it immediately and sat frustrated

    Oh man, poor girl (my instincts say it's a girl, because guys just don't sit there being frustated), I somehow feel bad for her, perhaps ready to cry because the computer isn't working "right".

    Anyway, being accostumed to Windows, I find the quirks of Linux frustating as well, for example sounds never work 100% for me, without tweaking. Sure, I can read the HOWTOs and tweak it till it's perfect, but sometimes I don't feel like it, especially when there's so many other quirks that need tweaking..

    --
    What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
  2. forgot one observation in conclusion by flacco · · Score: 0, Troll
    missing:

    "User #2 is a little bitch."

    don't tell me the F/OSS community doesn't understand usability!

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  3. Re:Will gnome die? by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · · Score: 0, Troll

    > ... complaining about Gnome's slowness, I'm gonna be confused. Wait, I'm confused already.

    You are confused. Evidence:

    > EVERYTHING about KDE and Qt is slow. One of
    > Gnome's plusses is that Gtk is very snappy- and > so therefore is Gnome.

    Well at least gnome terminal sucks donkey balls. I have started it in icewm (neither KDE nor GNOME preloaded) and it took 25 sec to start! For a terminal! konsole took 5 seconds. (This is an old Athlon 600 MHz)

    The best thing about gtk apps is that you can use
    the gtk-qt theme, which gives those apps the refined KDE look.
    See here http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/gtk-qt

    --
    Moritz