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Conducting a Unix Desktop Usability Study?

Posted by Cliff on from the not-something-you'd-generally-find-in-the-HOWTO-db dept.

cyclop asks: "I am a close friend of a Ph.D. student on human interface usability. She's now working to tailor a KDE-vs-Gnome usability study (a pretty hot topic these days), and I have been called to help, as a long time GNU/Linux desktop user. What kind of advice -- both technical and theoretical -- would you give us on conducting a deep and objective study on the Unix desktop, that can be useful for the developers and the OSS community?" "She has installed GNU/Linux and used both KDE and Gnome to get to know them, while I provided her a number of links on background information and previous usability studies on both DE, and advised her to subscribe to relevant mailing lists of both projects. However, I feel that it's not enough and that there are a lot of potential pitfalls and misconceptions that wait for us, me being a geek and she being a Linux newbie. Moreover, she found that most of the previous studies on the web were quite sloppy, in comparison with common usability research standards."

9 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Advice #1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Don't read slashdot.

  2. The Nipple? by mukund · · Score: 2, Funny

    You've got a lady friend and you have been called to help on conducting a deep and objective human interface study on the desktop?

    Go for it!

    (If you're wondering about the subject of this comment, the nipple is one of the most intuitive human interfaces btw).

    --
    Banu
    1. Re:The Nipple? by catmistake · · Score: 4, Funny
      the nipple is one of the most intuitive human interfaces

      maybe on a woman... but I don't consider my own very intuitive; I can't figure out what its purpose is.

      --
      The Admin and the Engineer
    2. Re:The Nipple? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny

      but I don't consider my own very intuitive; I can't figure out what its purpose is.

      You're a geek, so just use the process of elimination. All you have to do is remove your nipples, then wait and see what stops working.
      It's not rocket science...

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  3. Re:Simple by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Funny

    CowboyNeal is an interface?

    No, but "KowboyNeal" is.

  4. If you're taking on the KDE vs. Gnome forces ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "What kind of advice -- both technical and theoretical -- would you give us on conducting a deep and objective study on the Unix desktop, that can be useful for the developers and the OSS community?"

    If you're taking on the KDE vs. Gnome forces ...

    Divert Warp Power to the Shields.

  5. Problem, Action and Result by Stan+Vassilev · · Score: 4, Funny

    Problem: Unix GUI usability low for casual users.

    Action: Perform UNIX GUI usability studies every few days, post repeatedly on Slashdot.

    Result: UNIX GUI usability studies improve, UNIX GUI usability stays same.

  6. Re:The key would be selectability. by bedroll · · Score: 5, Funny
    That's just what this world needs, more levelling. I can just hear the uber-geeks now:

    I'm a level 137 Microsoft Win-zard, I can now wield the CLI of fortitude and I've unlocked the 5th ring of the registry.

    That will surely make the level 1s in this world eager to learn.

  7. Re:The key would be selectability. by MighMoS · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alright. I cast BSOD of slaying on your Win-zard.