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Usability Testing Hardy Heron With a Girlfriend
toomin writes "Reviews of the latest Ubuntu version, 8.04 Hardy Heron, are everywhere, but most of them are undertaken by geeks familiar with Linux. This guy sits his girlfriend down at a brand-new Ubuntu installation and asks her to perform some basic tasks. Some of them are surprisingly easy, others frustrate and annoy. There are lots of little usability tweaks he stumbles upon just by seeing the desktop experience from the point of view of the mainstream user."
A Linux geek with a girlfriend?? Yeah right!
Something is surely wrong, when instead of fscking her right proper he sits her down with Ubuntu...
This is Slashdot, not PenthouseDot or PlayboyDot.
We don't have girlfriends to test the usability of our hardon's with.
Oh... Hardy Herron, who's that ?
That's how user testing should be done. It is really much too difficult for someone familiar with the program or OS to see what is not obvious or confusing to a novice user. The people that program the UI don't always think like a user - they usually think like a programmer, and that doesn't always work.
In other news, man tests usability of Duke Nukem Forever running on GNU Hurd by making his GIRLFRIEND play it.
Man, they REALLY should have picked a different name for this release. Of course a headline like this would come along, and of course I'd misread the title, again. At least this time it's sort of appropriate.
Linux is not, and should not be a clone of Windows. However, most people will never use anything other than Windows, because they don't have to. They won't want to have to take the time to learn a new OS.
ROFL, that's priceless. Might not be something I'd splash all over /. mind you...
"backporting." Ahem. Thank you. I'm here all week. Try the prime rib!
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
1) a woman named Tillie
2) she must be an aunt (geeky nephews apparently OK)
Why thank you. My girlfriend said, my "Hardy Heron" is quite useable and pleasant to work with. Your mileage may vary, of course.
1) Use internet. Successful.
2) Watch youtube. Unsuccessful. No Flash.
3) Use torrent. Successful (but this is not a novice user task)
4) Draw pic. 1/2 Successful. Chose wrong tool.
5) Burn music. Unsuccessful
6) Mouse speed change. Successful.
7) Theme change. Successful.
8) Desktop background change. Successful.
9) Scree resolution change. Unsuccessful.
10) Advanced image manipulation. Successful
11) MSN. Unsuccessful
12) Install & Use skype. Successful.
Note, the problem with 5) burning music was not the actual burning, but finding the mp3s on a windows partition.
So, 8/12. (maybe 9.5/12)
To be honest, I've seen experience computer users have more trouble doing the above tasks when switching from windows to OS X.
Kudos to Ubuntu.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
i hear that the new beta of girlfriend has built in ubuntu support
This is slashdot! I don't have a girlfriend, you insensitive clod!
I laughed heartily at the fact that a common user scenario includes how to torrent a Spice Girls album. Not that I think that's not the case; it was just pretty refreshing to see how blatant this guy is about it.
This entire review is focused on that Ubuntu should work and act just like Windows. This is the one thing I tell most Linux-newcomers I aid support to, that it isn't going to - and thank go.. rms for that. Just like Windows requires some basic knowledge on how Windows works, Ubuntu needs the same thing - well, for Ubuntu. Throwing disses at Ubuntu because it isn't Windows is just silly.
For instance - instead of going searching for debs and tarballs everywhere possible on the net, with the knowledge on how to use Synaptic, she could have opened the program, made a few clicks, and it was dealt with - and with the tested and safe repositories, one doesn't need to worry about malicious code either.
I do think that 8.04 isn't a very good release though - which is why I advice newcomers to use 7.10 just a bit longer.
As expected the article had to include a picture of the girlfriend. This is just the geek's equivalent of a grandparent carrying a photo of the grandchild and showing it off to friends at the golf club. We know you're proud of your girlfriend and good on you for finding a nice girl, but she doesn't really have any relevance to Ubuntu.
It's more like the guy wants to trumpet to the world, "Look! I have a girlfriend! No really!" He even includes her photo, the sure tipoff. If he had just wanted a novice computer user, he could have used anyone else - but no, here it is linked from Slashdot in all its glory, and he can brag to everyone about his point-and-lick interface.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
...Rampant Rabbit with my girlfriend and we're getting on with it just fine thanks.
Great user experience, good performance, can't fault it. She's very pleased.
Recommended.
Where do I get this "with a girlfriend" release? .. of course with my luck, the "girlfriend" will be the openbsd version, and ship with all ports closed by default.
Find Japanese addresses in English on Google Maps Japan: http://diddlefinger.com/
His note that if you go too small of screen size you cant click on the buttons of the dialog. This happens a LOT in windows with dons of the dialogs and YES even the screen size dialog.
She would have failed that test under windows.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
... would have been a more interesting headline...
That's pretty interesting. On a tangentially related note, a guy I work with just install Ubuntu as his first linux. A friend and I were talking about 8.04 and he overheard us, so he walked up and started asking questions about it which we answered. The next day he shows up to work and says that he installed it and is really liking it. What is this world coming to when a normal guy one day hears about linux and the next successfully installs it without asking the local nerds for help? It was really interesting, he said the hardest thing was burning the ISO, other than that he said it was easier to use and set up than windows. Trust me when I say that this guy is very very average when it comes to computer smarts, this was a huge leap for him and it was no trouble at all. That's how I know linux is heading mainstream.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
still no wireless out of the box.
if i have to tweak it to get it to work i might as well stick with my old debian.
but other than that it looked good.
btw, the live CD took forever to boot compared to other live CDs i've used.
Yea man, my girlfriend and I love hardy heroin. xD
I installed 8.04 on Friday as a dual boot on my XP box and loved it. Was having a blast setting up my system, learning about the Ubuntu features (first time user), searching and installing new apps, downloading torrents and just loving the differences and speed.
So the ball and chain comes home and sees my new desktop and immediately wants to know what it is and why she can't have it on her notebook. I tell her she can but i want to make sure that she can still do all the stuff she needs to do for work on it. So she has to wait for a bit and my life is hell for a bit longer.
But i might try this approach and let her install a dual boot to see how it goes and how she likes it.
Come on. Is he serious? What does that thing do on slashdot? Slow news day, eh?
j.
P.S. It should be "Where do you want to go today" and not "What do you want to do"
I wasn't even at home, I had her account ready all the time in case she wanted to use a cool computer, not that laptop all the time. Apparently, some day she did, and I had a pretty vanilla Feisty back then. Hell, she downloaded that very tar.gz, followed the instructions on Adobe's site and when I came home, she was sitting on my PC browsing YouTube. I was so pwnd'd when I asked her to give me the keyboard to install that flashplayer.
So this guy is basically complaining because his girlfriend (who has never, ever used Linux before) couldn't find application names like 'Torrent Client', it's Ubuntu's fault there are things called repositories, and that everything from Windows doesn't work on Linux. Bravo. I will give the guy some credit - the flash issue with youtube is a pain in the ass - but really, he's testing how someone who drives a Geo Metro can handle a Freightliner. Sure, they can roll the windows up and down, but double clutching? They're lost. My money says this: Give her a week learning the system and I bet the experience is a hell of a lot better.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
Other than the putting the his head on her body, which she did successfully anyways, most the other 8 things could be done by searching the web. Which she was able to do.
Hand her the disc, tell her to click the "Install inside Windows" option, and let her loose from there. Completely non-destructive, and so simple your wife could (probably) do it.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
you update to the new release, and have to manually fiddle with modprobe to get it to engage your wifi card properly =/
I managed to get that working, but am now left with a problem that frankly has me stumped, in 7.10 I had no issues what-so-ever watching a video while simultaneously talking to someone on skype. Since updating, these two things have become mutually exclusive...
launching a video, and then trying to make a skype call yields an uninformative error in skype "call failed: there's a problem with the audio output". Starting a skype call, and then launching a video results in the video opening but being unable to actually "play".
colour me clueless...I have no idea what to do haha.
Machine9dotNet
Indeed sir, you are correct.
Kudos to Kubuntu; Panegnyric to Ubuntu.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Look, comparing ubuntu to windows is all well and good. It's what 'mainstream users' think computers are - windows.
But for fucks sake, don't use it as a reason to turn Ubuntu into windows! It's already losing it's "linux-ness" by being too newbie focussed.
Anyway - most of the 'problems' were with proprietary software. That is the fault of the proprietary vendors - how about laying blame where it belongs. A bare bones windows install doesn't even have half of those programs - she'd be pretty proper fucked on windows doing all those things if someone hadn't loaded her box with 'pirated' shit to start with. Some of the comments of the author indicate he doesn't really know what's going on either (e.g. using gimp to 'photoshop' a picture, and wondering why gimp isn't identical to photoshop. hint: it isn't photoshop).
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
Wow, what a novel, totally-unheard-off idea! Usability tests! And actually, you know, doing them, instead of just talking about them. And with, you know, actual users. Wow! Quick, get a patent about that!
Frankly, this is why I gave up about Linux-on-the-desktop back in, I'm not sure, 2000 or so. When the Gnome User Interface mailing list was full of people with great and groundbreaking ideas, most of them blatant violations of everything that HCI had long dumped as bullshit, others completely untested, the rest copies of windos ("because that's what people know and expect"). Most importantly, there wasn't a single expert in the field on the list or - to my knowledge - in the entire Gnome project. Yes, including me, having read a bunch of books on the subject doesn't make me an expert, it just allowed me to spot the I-have-no-idea-but-I'll-pretend-I-do guys more easily.
Linux has suffered tremendeously due to this disregard of the normal, non-geek user. You know, the kind of person whose VCR flashes "12:00" because the UI on VCRs is total shit and only geeks really bother with it because we are the only ones who consider bugs and technical problems to be a challenge instead of, say, bugs and technical problems.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I'd like to see the same test with Kubuntu. Not saying that it's better but I'd like to see the results with KDE as well.
I think many of these observations were valid and maybe points up the need for a "New To Ubuntu" mode that provides extra assistance for common transitional tasks. But, please, in consideration for those of us a little more technically inclined, provide a way to turn the new user mode off. Or offer it as a separate distro.
I'd be willing to bet the larger fraction of Ubuntu users are fairly tech savvy. If the developers try to foist Ubuntu Bob on users that don't want or need it, they'll lose their most loyal users. Bad for all of us. But if there isn't some kind of transitional assistance for new users, that will inhibit getting users from other operating systems into the ark.
The great thing about Linux is that it doesn't have to be all things to all people. You can shape a distro to the specific needs of particular users.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
"Gor blimee, luv! Go a bit easier on the hardy heron, will ya? I'm still wearing me truss!"
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
He didn't just suggest that Linux adds Clipit, did he?
Yes, some introductory tutorials can be useful, but if you add too many "what do you want to do" helpers then people just curse it for interfering. If you ask people "what is your level? beginner, normal, power user" then they'll debate it and either go too low and get too much help or go too high and feel abandonned.
IMO a better alternative (where it wasn't something minor like "computer was set up strangely with a Windows partition that didn't have a decent name and so she couldn't find MP3s") would be something more obvious as a source of tutorials so people can read it if they want it.
Usability testing your hairy hard-on with a girlfriend, are we?
With a what?
This is not an automated signature. I type this in to the bottom of every message.
Somebody discovered that user testing is part of making useful products? Common knowledge for most software manufacturers...
The article several times suggests that the solution to some of these problems is, essentially, user education: having balloons that signal "new item installed" or wizards open the first time you launch a program, telling you how the program works.
The problem is that this approach often doesn't work. For one thing, it annoys the piss out of experience users. For another thing, new users tend to ignore most of that information... mainly because they are being overwhelmed by new information and can't possibly assimilate it all.
Take, for instance, the problem that was encountered when changing screen resolution. The tester changed the resolution easily, but then she clicked the "Keep settings" immediately, which locked her into graphic settings that were hard to change back. Part of the problem, I suppose is that the system allowed the user to make a ridiculous change. But part of the problem is also, perhaps, that the user is very used to clicking "OK" on any dialog that gets in the way: there are too many new things to read and learn, and the easiest way to get things done (in the mind of a new user) is to dismiss those annoying boxes as quickly as possible. Would a second popup, that described in detail why this low resolution was a bad idea (and how to undo it when desired), have changed anything? Doubtful. Most users would just click "OK" without reading it.
All this to say that I'm by no means convinced that adding more balloons, wizards, and dialog boxes will magically make it easier for users to figure out what's going on. I don't know what the solution is: usability is a tough problem. There is a place for helpful information (balloons, tool-tips, etc.), reminders, and wizards. But too much of this becomes decidedly counter-productive.
Was that guy testing the usability of his girlfriend or Hardy Heron?
I think Windows achieved 12 out of 12 at least 5 or 6 years ago! Features and security are excellent under Linux, but usability is years behind Microsoft.
Really. I bought her a new (small) pc, dualcore athlon64, 1GB Ram, nothing fancy.
:D
I put hardy as a late beta on it, she had the same tools as under windows. That is firefox, thunderbird and openoffice. Now she has instant messaging too anf some more stuff.
To be honest:
- Without any help she would be lost. You need to get the ppl started with the new system.
- She quite quickly understood the concept of the folders "documents, pictures" etc... and uses them on a daily basis.
- After not using a pc for about 3 weeks, she wasn't even able to type "@" in her email programm, and of course she always blamed the new system. This must be some "imune-system-reaction" against learning something new. That's how i saw it.
- I forced her to remember at least some basic passwords. email and such. So she would not forget them in the future and i always tell her that i do not keep her passwords. It's her stuff, she has to take care. -> this leads to responsibility and identification with the system: MY email, MY webbrowser etc...
After all i think she is not perfectly happy with the system, but that's more the problem of the bad mouse, or the rather old screen than the OS. She uses it, she gets used to it and she can do her work. -> fine
Oh yeah: AMD64-SMP Kernel, all the Xorg-AIGLX-Bling is enabled, excluding wobbly-windows.
cheers
marco
I'm waiting for the next Ubuntu release to be called "Pink Python" or "Skin Snake" - then the headline would be even better!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
One of our sales guys was having problems with his XP pro install, IE bit the dust and wouldn't show images, even the images in the about box for the application. He asked me if there was any decent alternatives to any of this stuff and I mentioned Ubuntu, but with a level of hesitation (becoming his technical support person for the next 6 months didn't appeal to me) I stated that it had some parts which were a little on the technical side and that he couldn't expect everything to work out of the box. It was a 3 year old laptop. Overnight he found the ubuntu site, downloaded the 7.10 ISO and did a full install (after backing everything up). Came in the next day, put the thing on my desk and showed me it running, including using his accounting package under WINE, his printer and scanner installation. I was thoroughly impressed, with the only question he had was how to setup his PCMCIA NextG Telstra card, about 10 minutes installation time. He had even converted his mail from Outlook to Evolution. After this, I have much more confidence in recommending Ubuntu to people who are used to using something else on a regular daily basis. Before this I'd usually install this stuff for other people I knew, get it going and leave them to it, no more virus or spyware phone calls. Nice work Canonical.
Task Mangler
Usability testing of an OS one must install should start with the user installing the OS.
If she didn't install it, then the test is not complete.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I never thought anything could beat Hungry Hippo, but I think we have a new winner here!
Summation 2
Using a list of common tasks to test a piece of software is simple, brilliant, and done all too infrequently. I can't count the number of times I've been using an application and can't work out how to do something that hundreds of other people must also want to do, and yet the developer has not made this task obvious.
Open source tools often suffer from this because they are so proud of their features. I remember trying to burn a data CD under Linux 3 or 4 years ago and the tool I was using did not make it at all obvious how I drag files into the workspace and then burn them. It did, however, make the SCSI options for me CD drive immediately available.
Web pages often suffer because they are style over substance. Yes, it looks very pretty, but how do I buy stuff? Well done for having text on the front page that tells me how "obsessed by quality" you are, but where is the contact address so I can ask you questions about your product?
Software libraries suffer when they are more interested in recruiting developers than serving users. I remember trying to use a Perl tool that required a specific module. The web page for the module had a great deal of links about writing applications using that module but nowhere on the whole page did it tell me how to download and install the module so it could be used with an existing application.
When designing any piece of software think: what will this be mostly used for? Does it make it easy to do that?
Could an article be condescending and chauvinistic? Come on folks, this would be in the same vein as, 'Slashdoters contemplate the in's and out's of intercourse.'
Since he's using unix, now he can finger and touch his girlfriend.
/STD directory.
I hope he rm -rf'ed her
I wonder if he showed his girlfriend his 3.5" Floppy Drive?
apt-get girlfriend?
$ passwd
Enter old password: iamsocool!!!11
Enter new password: penis
Re-enter new password: penis
Error: Password too short.
OK, enough for now...
Well - let's see...
First task: no trouble...
Second task: no flash...
Now I wonder why he starts cheeting here. You see - about 99% of the windows computers come pre-configured, so to make a fair comparisation the Ubuntu on this computer sould be pre-configured as well. Compared to a fresh XP install Ubuntu went very well..
Third task: Well - To be fair you should say that a bare windosw install does not even HAS a bittorent client. You have to search the web to find one. Then you have to install and hope it does not have malware/spyware/viruses. I think Ubuntu is much more easy here..
Forth task: Well - to find the program you like most you have to try out a few. The problem here is that the poor girl has not given any time to get familiair with a totally new OS and new applications. No wonder she can't find the right application the first time she tries. Oh - and by the way - how many good paint progr4ams windows has out of the box? Never mind...
Fifth task: Oh come on! This failed because she can't find a file? The files she wanted should have be ported to the right directory by the one installing Ubuntu. Thats the reason for having a music folder in the first place. We can turn the task around and let her burn a music CD using a fresh windows install and using a Ubuntu file directory. What? Windows has no burning software? Cannot find the files you are looking for? Bad Bad Bad - must be absolutely not ready for the dsktop - that's for sure!
Sixth task: no problems
Seventh task: no problems
Eight task: no problems
Ninth Task: Hmmm.. she did the wrong click. The result should not had happend. A fair critism here. At the other hand - a bare windows install will use a very low resolution with your card. You see - to get a higer resolution you have to install a driver. Would yo let the girfriend find and install that driver? We are comparing "out of the box" systems here renember?
Tenth Task: Failed because the software is not an exact copy of Photoshop? Well - he should have bought an pre-installed Photoshop using wine. You see - to make a fair comparisation you should have put somone behind a bare windows install an asking the same thing. It would not even produce anything at all!!
Eleventh Task: I am not familiair with MSN so I cannot comment here..
Twelfth Task: She succeeded.
Well the comparisation was not wat I would call fair. He let his girl sitting down behind a unfamiliair, not pre configurated OS, and compares that with a fully equipped, familiair and configurated windows OS. He does not give her a chance to familiairise the slighthest bit with this brand new OS, but demands her to forfill tasks the same moment she sits down behind the screen for the first time!!!
I should say, considering that this person had no time to get familiair wit something she had never seen before, she did a good task. Give her a week to get used to Ubuntu and I predict she will find her way very easy..
So - instead of a failure I would call this a distinct victory. Ubuntu IS ready for the desktop!!!
Imagine how many years Linux is behind in usability, compared to Windows. In security it may be years ahead, and in features quite a bit as well, I'm sure, but when considering Linux for the desktop that doesn't really matter, does it? Therefore, a couple of questions considering usability and Linux: - How much effort is spent developing usability vs. non-usability related features? - How many usability experts are part of the Linux developer community? - Have serious efforts been made in producing detailed guidelines for user interfaces and general look-and-feel? - Does the developer community realise that the Windows look-and-feel has become a de facto standard? - Is Linux going to get its usability up to scratch before Windows fixes its security issues?
I get your point... but we don't really care.. how much does it take for her to learn the "new features" ? more than it took to learn windows ? I bet if i ask my grilfriend (who only uses linux) to try windows Xp installed from scratch, she will have _at least_ the very same problems.
I can't be the only one who read this as "Usability testing hardy heroIn with a girlfriend".
I mean, I'm sure it will work, but that is likely to soon require a replacement girlfriend...
Just another ignorant American.
This guy sits his girlfriend down at a brand-new Ubuntu installation and asks her to perform some basic tasks.
It's pretty clear that he didn't submit it to slashdot.
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Install Girlfriend 1.0 or higher and get Nerd a life. See world from different point-of-view.
Now install "Girlfriend Dump" hack. So Nerd has lots of free time to waste on Xbox360 and hacking Linux.
This does remind me of a scenario (which I can't remember the specifics of - I read it on a blog a while ago) where the developers of office 2007 or vista set up a bunch of computers and let average people use them. They would observe them from another room, and see where users ran into the most common problems in order to make it more user-friendly.
This seems very similar to the guys scenario, but on a much larger scale. If the developers of the applications got a sample of average Joes, and sat them down to play around with a default installation whilst observing them from a seperate room, they could learn quite a lot about the average user experience of programs such as Pidgin and The GIMP in addition to seeing where they have trouble navigating the menus - such as trying to find a bittorrent client.
Also, if an msn only client is what you (or someone you know) needs, try emesene (http://emesene.org/). The name's a bit funny, but it has a very similar layout to the official client - though simplified and with no ads of course.
Hi... I'm a girlfriend of a computer geek? Anyway, he helped me get set up on Ubuntu. If you have a girlfriend, show her how to use Ubuntu. Please! Don't leave her stranded on Windoze. Sure, there's a learning curve... but if I didn't have my boyfriend to show me how to get the hang of Ubuntu then I never would have managed it on my own. Just having a computer-savvy guy who could show me the quirks... how to patiently look up fixes on the ubuntu forums rather than sitting here mad at the machine if something breaks... damn that's sexy. Be prepared for your girlfriend being a little confused/frustrated/annoyed at little things that you just didn't even think to be confused/frustrated/annoyed at when you were setting things up on your machine... but once she gets the hang of it, she won't go back. The number of programs freely available to install immediately is fantastic. I agree that Gimp should be set up more like Photoshop. (I hate how each image gets it's own window. What a window-hog. Also, it needs better colour support.)
This is why the problem is so persistent, it is inherent to the open source way of devoloping software. It won't go away any time soon.
What could change it would for example be if a seller of a commercial linux distro would actually pay application developers for modifications, including usability: "-You get $1000 if you can make pidgin girlfriend-friendly following these guidelines", meaning: wizards, simplifications, naming conventions, themes and so on.
Things will never be the same with your girlfriend. Please, don't do this in your home.
Well here's some more anectodes:
My wife switched to Ubuntu after her XP-installation trashed the hard drive. When she first tried to recover the OS with the supplied restore-cd from LG neither the WiFi card or sound worked. Then she tried Ubuntu which worked without turning a dial.
Now she's been running Ubuntu for over six months and she's hooked. She even managed to install Hardy Heron while breastfeeding our 7 week old daughter. - If that isn't usability for the masses then what is?
Break the sound barrier - bring the noise.
I would love to see one of these "users" start with a fresh XP install. They won't even have network connectivity until they figure out there is another CD around with some drivers on it. Good eff'n luck. They won't get a single task done.
The number of comments in this thread from people who are dismissive of usability tests is indicative of the gap between Linux fans and everyone else.
Usability is more than checking to see if a user evenrtually figured out how to get something deon. E.g., it's disastrous if they can't figure out how to open a file. But, the fact that they managed to open the file is not necessarily an indicator of a good design.
Usability is something people pay cash for. Just ask Apple and the Photoshop folks.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
If one eye goes bad, we have a spare. If one lung goes wrong, we have a spare.
If one pooper goes bad, we explode.
Like all major OSes now do. I understand the copyright/IP laws that prevent this from becoming a reality, it's just unnecessarily frustrating. On the plus side it has become much easier to install this media support out of the box after a copyright warning notice pops up. Back in the days of RHL 8 this was not so trivial to enable.
This also made me wonder if the tech support would need to have more INT. stats and less Fake Charm. I doubt it though.
Entertaining article, and I'm surprised at the ease of use that Ubuntu provided its user from a clean slate. Although I do remember having a brief moment of trouble with Adobe Flash Player, because if you also install the Gnash SWF viewer, site content goes askew. That's one of Firefox plugin managers two options.
I've been using Windows since 3.1 and I switched to Ubuntu 2 years ago. I'm a sysadmin and a programmer.
That said, we have a few Macs at work that our designers use that I have to administrate and help with. While I find Windows and Linux quite easy (even tho I use them totally differently
Example: the first time I installed Firefox, I tried installing it twice and couldn't figure out why it disappeared upon reboot and why no other user accounts could get to it. I used a Windows-type install approach (download installer from the internet, run, keep clicking 'Next'). When I was finished, a Firefox icon appeared on my desktop. Done? NO! How the hell was I supposed to know that you have to drag the stupid thing to your Applications folder?
Also, on both Windows and Linux, it's easy to get to the computer's root partition (C:\ or
If OSX is supposed to be the king of usability, desktop linux is seriously catching up. OR
Did she ever click the help and support button that's located next to the firefox and evolution links?
If not, perhaps the people who design the ui could look into this, and try to make the help system something that first time users will actually pay attention to, whilst not being annoying like the ms office clippy.. Also, ensure that the help content is useful, and details explanations on how to achieve tasks that first time users will want to accomplish - such as installing adobe flash and the like.
Yeah, and it's a huge part. It's the 800 pound gorilla part.
Testing for useability needs to come in much, much earlier in development, and it needs to involve a much wider cross-section of human beings. And as it's being done, development of adequate documentation and help needs to go hand and hand with it.
It's so easy to disparage girlfriends, the middle-aged, and the elderly--in short, anyone whose job or study is not technical--that I think it's becoming ingrained in the cultures responsible for developing the various operating-system distributions and open-source software packages. This is going to cause them to suffer over the long haul. It's what makes them such a tough sell to people in business.
There's an immense population of middle-aged people, for example, still in the work force. And interestingly enough, they've actually now all got 20 or 25 years' experience as end-users of computer systems. They're not stupid. They all have jobs that they need to get done. They're not interested in being part of user communities and forums. They're not interested in the ideals of free and open-source software. They're not interested in sticking it to Microsoft. They're not interested in that warm feeling of accomplishment that until recently accompanied getting your printers hooked up to OpenOffice--after wasting hours of productive time doing it. They're interested in using their computers as tools to accomplish their current day's work.
Issues of usability and documentation aren't much fun. They're probably the least glamorous and most boring functions of developing the software. That's why they get such short shrift in open-source development. Nobody really wants to take them on, so we're treated to excrescenses like having people guess how to get out to a command line to install their audio player or their scanner or their printer.
Large-scale developers of proprietary software know precisely where their bread is buttered, and they attend to all this as a matter of course.
"Girlfriend" articles seem to appear quite regularly every few months, so at least somebody is thinking about this even at a ridiculous level. A lot more people need to be thinking about it at a much more serious level.
"Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
Well I had my own quite frustrating experience with Hardy Heron yesterday. I installed it on my uncles shiny new laptop and it worked out of the box, no technical problems. Today he phoned me asking how to copy a DVD he recorded some time ago with his PVR.
Obviously he inserted the DVD and right away some player popped open starting playback, but when he opened the DVD copy application he only got an error message. And guess what, the error message is in English. My uncle is not a computer person and he does not speak English at all, only German. His English is not even good enough to read it aloud on the phone, and he has no internet connection that would allow me to log in remotely. So copying the DVD has to wait until we meet again, in June.
This is not the first time this happens with Ubuntu. I made similar experiences with older versions. And I seriously wonder why a lot of the translations missing in Ubuntu are perfectly available in Debian for a long time.
...but my distro (SuSE 10.2) does the exact same thing as Windows when I press F1.
She got an excellent score and would probably be able to find solutions to her problems in matter of minutes on Google.
--
Linux is not Windows... and that's the whole point of Linux, if it was Windows we wouldn't need it.
Do you know how drivers change gears in a formula one car (stay with me here)? I only found this out the other day, but apparently they change gears by pushing buttons mounted on the back of the steering wheel. It's far quicker, and means they don't have to take their hands off the wheel to make a gear change.
So, why do the rest of us still use gear sticks? Well, that would be because we all already know how to use them. Building a car with a different gear shift mechanism, even one that offered obvious advantages, would make it harder for most people to drive, so no one does. Most customers would look at it, and decide that they did'nt want to bother learning a new system.
You can see where I'm going with this, right? Windows IS the standard for using a computer. When an office job asks for "IT Skills", it really means "Windows Skills" If you actually want to capture a large market share, you have to make things easy for windows users.
And of course different is hard. It's hard because familiar is easy, so anything else is hard in comparison. I'm a developer, I'd find it a damn sight harder to code something in a programing language I'm not familiar with than I would in, say, C++ or Perl.
Now the truth is that this all matters less and less. standard OS GUIs are all slowly converging on one another. There are only so many ways to draw rectangles and lists of options to the screen. I'm typing this on Kubuntu 8.04. If i want to open a program I click on the button in the bottom left to bring up a list of apps. If I were using windows I would cl... well, you get the picture. I can already download a deb package and install it by double clicking, just like on windows.
BTW, to the inevitable smart arse who replies to this with an example of some car that changes gears clenching your buttocks, that does not disprove the analogy. Proving that 95 percent of cars out there DO NOT change gears using a stick mounted next to the drivers seat would disprove the analogy.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
What this article shows is that usability is hard. You're not going to be able to work towards anything 'usable' by simply following HIG guidelines and talking endlessly about 'ordinary users'. Even some of the usability studies I've seen don't cover the right stuff. Mind you, what she did achieve just goes to show how much 'ordinary users' can get done, and that they're not stupid.
In reality, the stuff that is touched on in this article could be used to make things better and more straightforward for everyone, no matter how technical or non-technical they are. I mean, there have been times when I've used an e-mail client, some I've used before, and I'm thinking "How hard would it be just to have a setup wizard that asks me what the name of my mail server is, how I'm connecting and what the username and password is for both sending and receiving?". Outlook, Thunderbird, KMail and others seriously lack this, and lack the ability to roll other more advanced options in such as SSL and TLS transparently. It shouldn't be that much of a pain.
The other problems mainly go back to something I can remember talking about at length before. Things like Flash should be pre-installed, and if not, installing it should be a pretty easy process. Linux distributions have great package management systems, but they have no infrastructure for easily allowing people to package up third-party software and install it.
The programs that support the ipod on linux still suck. My GF had a bunch of problems trying to get hers to work (newest ver nano). I had to find some custom libraries, make them work with rhythmbox (which sucks too) and show her how to use rhythmbox. Everything about it was very non intuitive and impossible for a new user.
I personally love ubuntu and it is my main OS, but for all the girlfriends and grandmas out there, it still has a ways to go.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Adobe should really update their web page. For Ubuntu, to install flash, you install the package through the package manager (you may or may not need to enable non-free). Ubuntu could try to work around this by handling Flash player like they do non-free drivers.
I am getting somewhat concerned, however, about the ubiquity of Flash... we really need to make the free versions work.
You have to shop around.
And if you buy a Windows machine, what version of Vista does it have? Now play a DVD on a vanilla version of Vista Basic. Contact someone on AIM on Vista. Edit photos on Vista basic. Run torrents.
What, they require installation?
Ah, we're back to Ubuntu being easier.
And how difficult is it to install Ubuntu anyway? Pretty damn easy.
Fud fuddity fud.
The main issue with the desktop experience is that the geeky programmers and designers assume too much from the average user.
:-)
In all fairness, so do Windows and Macintosh: there is plenty of software on those systems (even in the base system) that also asks questions that only geeky programmers can answer. People solve that by having geeky friends.
And what's wrong with that anyway? If it weren't for obscure, user-hostile software, nobody would talk to us geeks, so don't dare fix this
I'm also trying this with someone at work but with a little twist. I changed the session to fluxbox and edited the menu to only the basic and simplest of applications. With each menu item is a description of the app,( Pidgin Instant Messaging , Brasero CD Burning ). Haven't had much feedback but this may be an indication that all is well and easily understood. At least this is what I'm hoping for.
I have decided to start learning how to use linux in case I ever wanted to switch. While I see why some people like it, I still see why it is never going to be widely adopted. For instance, I installed an antivirus program and cannot run an update on it unless i go do the sudo command even though there is a button in the gui. Documentation and instruction has also been increasingly frustrating. It seems like every set of instructions have a step in which i have to find OTHER documentation to do or they just tell me to do something without telling me where to go and what to type in. I end up so confused and frustrated that I move onto something else. Mac on the other hand is great. I would probably move to a mac rather than linux if i had to.
sudo apt-get install girlfriend
Missing dependencies:
mother-in-law
wedding-plans
Incompatible packages:
football-matches
female-friends
male-friends-as-well
Remove incompatible packages and install dependencies? [No, Yes I want to get powned]
I don't get why people keep complaining about GIMP not being like Photoshop. Last time I tried Photoshop I was really confused with all that bloated toolbars with tiny icons, you can't even tell the difference between them, and they are just difficult to click. I know, that new users are more familiar with that crappy UI, but that doesn't mean that we have to copy all those ugly UI design mistakes just to please them.
even if you could find how to do the basics it is only a matter of time (if not the same day) before you are having to debug something in the terminal. and oh you should have gotten her to burn a dvd with menu's that would have been fun to see her figure out that one.
In case you didn't read it, the author of the article asked what would be a better way to revert to the old resolution if the resolution that was chosen caused the dialog box not to fit on the user's desktop anymore (or something to that effect). The answer would be (in Xfce) to hold down ALT (it's possible that it originally was a different key and that I changed it, I can't remember) and click on the window and drag it around. I'm sure Gnome offers similar functionality.
Just thought I'd reply here because you talked about that problem for a bit.
but... and this is the thing. Computers and especially Linux are very flexible. This means that they are by nature complex to use. I'm not saying usability is bad, but that at some point, eventually, your users should ideally read some documentation or manual or something to actually understand how the system works.
If new Linux users meticulously avoid actually learning anything, that just makes for irritating bug reports. I'm not complaining about the new features, but rather about the culture that expects to use complex machinery without understanding anything about it.
It may sound lame, but THIS is what keeps me up at night.
How do you kill that which has no life?
Sit her down with a stock Mac and make her do the same tasks and see what happens. There's a difference between "I can't do it because Leenocks is hard!" and "I'm set in my Windows ways and can't think outside of them for myself."
Different from Windows does not equal bad or wrong. There would be a similar initial learning curve in any non-Windows environment.
"HES NOT ONE OF US, he has a girlfriend"
--ComicBook Guy
The people that design UIs should focus on usability and performance of the UI for a day-to-day user.
One of the reasons I don't use Windows is because of all the nagging newbie wizards and prompts that get in the way. I know what I'm doing, so get out of my way! I'd rather struggle a little bit initially with learning a piece of software than struggle with it every single day of the year as it nags me about things I already know/don't care about.
Some examples of bad UIs "designed for noobs": desktop cleanup wizard, security center, Windows Media Player privacy/settings introduction wizard, etc.
Software introductions/wizards might be achievable - but only if there is a global "I'm a noob" option in the operating system installation process. Better yet, just design some nice graphical documentation that is optionally pushed to the user during installation (or on demand after installation). My UI design summary: I know what I'm doing, get out of my way and let me do my work as fast and effortlessly as possible.
Note that testing UIs on new users is a great idea because it allows you to see the UI design problems that typical users have become accustomed to. But fix those problems without impacting the usability and performance of the UI for existing experienced users.
I'm sorry, but I'm sick of things like this - his girlfriend HAS to be some untutored user who has no clue about computers, tee-hee. As a female computer programmer, should people assume my husband is computer illiterate? No? Then why assume his girlfriend is?
Isn't it enough to say that the installation was tested with a novice user instead of putting stupid assumptions and implications right in the freaking headline?
And of course, what kind of replies do I expect to my post around here? People marveling that a woman is posting on slashdot that will be modded up as funny. Given the nature of my post, I also expect some responses telling me to calm down or calling me a feminazi. There, I've taken care of those responses, you can stick to ones that actually address what I've said.
His conclusion:
... in the windows ecosystem.
... so if Linux isn't ready for the desktop, neither is windows by his standards.
"Linux wonâ(TM)t truly be ready for the desktop until someone computer illiterate can sit down at a the computer and with little effort do what they want to do. Erinâ(TM)s intelligent, quick to learn and is reasonably well-acquainted with modern technology. If she had as much trouble as she did, what chance to the elderly or at least the middle-aged stand?"
Only his GF isn't at all computer illiterate, she's quite literate
Almost all his objections and his GF problems with Ubuntu are like "GF looks for Limewire, can't find it, eventually starts the program BlaBla. Why didn't they say BlaBla was a torrent program?"
This is just a learning curve, just like his GF had to do to learn windows
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
The article several times suggests that the solution to some of these problems is, essentially, user education: having balloons that signal "new item installed" or wizards open the first time you launch a program, telling you how the program works. The problem is that this approach often doesn't work. For one thing, it annoys the piss out of experience users. There's a simple cure for that: Make balloons/alerts of this sort an integral part of GNOME/KDE; and let the GUI preferences give the option: To show these balloons, to not show these balloons, or to show a small icon - not too small so it'll get noticed, but small enough as to not be intruding; maybe something of systray icon proportions. For another thing, new users tend to ignore most of that information... mainly because they are being overwhelmed by new information and can't possibly assimilate it all. Take, for instance, the problem that was encountered when changing screen resolution. The tester changed the resolution easily, but then she clicked the "Keep settings" immediately, which locked her into graphic settings that were hard to change back. Part of the problem, I suppose is that the system allowed the user to make a ridiculous change. But part of the problem is also, perhaps, that the user is very used to clicking "OK" on any dialog that gets in the way: there are too many new things to read and learn, and the easiest way to get things done (in the mind of a new user) is to dismiss those annoying boxes as quickly as possible. Would a second popup, that described in detail why this low resolution was a bad idea (and how to undo it when desired), have changed anything? Doubtful. Most users would just click "OK" without reading it. The solution for this argument is right there. It's possible to help users without overwhelming them. I believe Microsoft tackled this problem pretty well: if the balloon/message window has 10 lines of text telling you, in detail, why it's bad to change the resolution to so little, and suggest better resolutions, it'll look like a blob of EULA-type text and nobody's gonna read it. But if it were a window saying "Such a small resolution might make the screen unusable. Are you sure?" with a Yes/No/Help button, text this short will enter the user's mind before she even finds the Yes key. All this to say that I'm by no means convinced that adding more balloons, wizards, and dialog boxes will magically make it easier for users to figure out what's going on. I don't know what the solution is: usability is a tough problem. There is a place for helpful information (balloons, tool-tips, etc.), reminders, and wizards. But too much of this becomes decidedly counter-productive. That's true, but what the article points out, is that there's a certain magical amount of small, intuitive, nonintrustive pointers that regular users NEED in order to function. If you own a country club, hiring a guy to come over every time someone looks around to ask "Do you want to know where the restroom is?" might be way too much, but nobody's going to sign up if they can't find the little, 10" x 8" sign on the wall saying "WC ->".
Many users here seem to think (and argue) that any aspect of Ubuntu that mirrors windows is inherently bad or evil. Take for example, the automatic creation of 'Music' and 'Pictures' folders in the users home directory. Sorry, but this isn't a bad idea just because Microsoft does it. Although everyone's organization scheme varies, having these kinds of folders in your home directory makes perfect sense.
We have to remember that Microsoft is the elephant in the room, and the vast majority of home users are accustomed to how MS does things. At least to a certain extent, it's not a bad thing to emulate MS Windows in certain ways. I know of a few people who haven't been able to get online with PC's I've set up, simply because they don't recognize the Firefox icon. Yes, we all hate at, but it's the reality.
Tests like these are great for the community. I've always said the absolutely best way to test usability is to get non-technical users to try and program and give feedback. As much as the open-source community dislikes Microsoft, they do gets things right by holding focus groups upon focus groups to get feed back.
It's great that people are thinking about testing the usability of a Linux distro aimed at more mainstream users. This is something that should be done to evaluate what kind of support is needed for people beginning their first experience with an alternate operating system. And I think that this is what the linked posting aimed at doing.
However, the benchmark for usability should be how functional an OS is out of the box for new or inexperienced users, not for girlfriends or women. Being and gal and reading the comments posted for this story really strikes a chord in me. What I am hearing is a lot of people saying that Linux is so easy now that a girl can use it. Put that in any other context and it sounds amazingly sexist, although some of the commenters may not have meant it in that way.
I think it is true that there are more technologically savvy guys than gals, but the issue is not that women cannot be technologically savvy. We are perfectly capable of reading instructions on how to install an application. I think it is more an issue of interest and appeal. Fewer women are interested or have the confidence to tinker around with settings, configure applications or even build their own computers. In part, I think this attitude comes from the culture surrounding technology. It can be hard to shine when people do not believe in and foster your abilities.
At the moment I am not a linux user, but I have been on and off for ten years. If you look on my bookshelf you will find my old copies of Maximum Linux Security and O'Reilly Running Linux. And when I first installed Mandrake onto my box, my scientist-programmer of a boyfriend was pretty jealous that I got it all to work.
Why did I do it? I did not need to put Linux on my computer. I just thought it would be fun and interesting, that I would learn something new about my computer. And this is the point I would like to make: This is not the mindset of the average user, whether that person is a male of female. It is the mindset of someone that is interested in and confident with computers and their usage.
The big stumbling block I think most UI developers hit is the fallacy that elements of the interface need to mimic something "popular" or "familiar" (typically a Windows UI, given their market-share).
Doing that amounts to a short-cut, where you're settling for pleasing people who "already struggled to learn a previously designed interface" - at the expense of winning over a crowd that never mastered that one in the first place.
I'd say usability testing like what was done in this article is the ONLY way to succeed, if you're going to proceed with a true goal of "ease of use". Anyone savvy enough to help build an OS is FAR too removed from comprehending all the points of confusion the "average user" might run across.
(And again, this is why a developer typically thinks so "inside the box" when it comes to concepts like "open file" dialogs, "save" and "export" options on menus, or assumptions about which plug-ins and "extras" a typical user will need.)
Personally, I think "file extensions" are a pretty evil concept, the way most operating systems today handle them. I'm not saying they're "pointless". Rather, they're too technical in nature for the casual user. I think Apple was on the right track when they decided, years ago, to let the OS decide what application a file belonged to via hidden "resource fork" data, instead of the 3 character extension on the end of the file defining it. The problem is, Apple tried to do this when it went "against the grain" of what every other OS was doing, and it created too many headaches for moving data between platforms.
In addition, it used to create a lot of problems where an app would "marry itself" to a certain file-type, and that wasn't always the most desirable behavior. I think they need to brand "metadata" onto files so apps can check there to know what a file is, but provisions are made to allow *several* apps to become preferred options for working with a given filetype. (EG. When a user double-clicks a document, a dialog opens asking if they'd like to open this with "MS Word, CoolJoe Writer, or Starview? Or click here to modify your selection of preferred programs used to work with this type of document.")
Maybe she could have had Linux Mint installed, which is basically ubuntu with better hardware support, artwork, and all multimedia codecs installed by default? I've had no trouble converting various friends and family members over to mint, especially on machines that don't have permanent internet connections from which extra packages can be downloaded.
The World is Yours.
I just installed 8.04 over the weekend on my laptop, and am a complete Linux/Unix noob. My results (Dell Vostro 1500 laptop):
.rpm? Why doesn't double clicking on them do anything? Why isn't there any sort of "how to" prompt in Ubuntu, you would think that Linux would recognize its own files and know how to install them? Finally, I found a site that had a walkthrough tutorial of the package manager and I (very unintuitively) followed the recipe in ignorance and Flash worked.
From the iso disc, it installed flawlessly and I arrived at a desktop screen. After some fiddling:
Wireless card: Not detected/configured
Sound card: Not detected/configured
Video card: Not detected/configured
Touchpad: Twitchy and jumpy
I sighed in frustration at the hours ahead...
First I needed an internet connection. I made a wireless profile, and after much frustrated fiddling it Firefox refused to connect even after I had configured and detected my router. So I used the oldest Windows trick in the book...reboot. Internet worked just fine after that, go figure, I had always heard the "geeks" say that Linux had solved the "reboot to install" problem.
Next I tried to install Flash. Yikes! My experience mimicked the article...what in the hell do I do with tar.gz or
Video card: Same story as Flash, nVidia's site gave me a link to a file, but why wouldn't it install? I tried a half-dozen different walkthroughs on various forums, with console commands of "sudo" this and "apt-get" that and finally installed something called "Envy". Finally, Ubuntu accepted the new drivers. Yay, video card works (2 hours later!)
Neat side effect...with the new video drivers, my touchpad is no longer twitchy. That's nice.
After my first weekend, I feel pretty good, but then I am used to suffering through Windows OS installs and upgrades, and compared to past Windows installs this was only equally painful, but not an improvement in any way.
Sound still does not work, I'm going to go forum-hunting again.
Bottom line, if the machine didn't come completely pre-installed and pre-configured with Ubuntu, I would never recommend the experience to another noob, especially not one who wasn't determined and fearless about troubleshooting.
----- And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with one word...UNLESS.
She was convinced that something was "wrong" with her computer that I had installed Suse. Finally got her a Mac with the understanding that I don't know Mac much and could not offer her tech support. Anyway, I wound up fixing/solving all her issues with that as well. Almost daily issues at first, then weekly, and finally after 4-5 months, I rare get asked to do much with it. She only uses it for downloading songs, making powerpoint, webbrowsing, and some camera picture stuff.
To be honest, both Linux and Mac generated about the same amount of workload for me
..........FULL STOP.
The problem with programs being "helpful" is exemplified in one of the main features of the Firefox 3 beta that Hardy comes with. That URL bar, where starting to type a URL you've been to before brings up a list of matches? In the new FIrefox, the developers figured it would be better if the page titles were matched too, not just the URL. And while it's doing that, they decided to display the page titles larger and below the URLs, rather than to the right of as before. And it doesn't just match from the beginning, but from anywhere in the page title. So you type the letter "t," and whereas before you would have seen the several URLs beginning with "t" that you've recently visited, now you see every page where the letter "t" occurred in the page title or URL. Then you type "h," and instead of (in my case) being down to "theoildrum.com" and "theonion.com" there's a long list of every page title or URL with the letters "th" in them. Adding "e" doesn't narrow it down much.
Oh, and while there used to be a way to revert Firefox to its old, much more useful, behavior, that option was removed two months ago because the developers are so in love with their "helpful, friendly" method of showing every page from your history with "the" in the page title.
Okay, here we have the best-funded project in open source, free software. We have Google as the main funder - who know something about simple interfaces and usability. And we have Ubuntu choosing to default its users to this new Firefox, despite the Mozilla project's upfront statement that it's not considered ready for regular use yet. (And it's not in other ways too: Elements swim around the page much more than they do in Firefox 2, meaning that while it may be faster on the back end, on the front end there are longer periods where you just can't look closely at it without quesiness.)
So here are developers trying to make their packages ever-so-helpful. And they fail, for the precise reason that Microsoft so often fails. The best tools, for people who will use them every day (or even weekly) are well honed, not cluttered with cruft.
It's also why the girlfriend test is of limited utility. What matters isn't how it looks to a brand-new user, but how it looks to that user after a month of use. That's the point where they say, "This looked promising at first, but damn do I miss the better fit-to-hand of the tools in my old OS." As in any new relationship, the most critical test isn't the first date, but where you are after a month together. Optimizing for the first date often directly undermines the long-term viability of the relationship.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
I installed Hardy Heron on my windows box this weekend, however my wife's been too busy to sit at the computer yet.
I would've loved to describe her reaction to you guys in this thread... maybe in the next one!
Sounds like girlfriends are fairly easy to use with Ubuntu.
1) Use internet 2) Watch youtube 3) Use torrent 4) Draw pic 5) Burn music 6) Mouse speed change 7) Theme change 8) Desktop background change 9) Scree resolution change 10) Advanced image manipulation 11) MSN 12) Install & Use skype Might be a good test for people in college, but not for people with real jobs. How about these: 1) Connect to the Internet 2) Configure E-Mail Account 3) Develop Spread Sheet with Macros that can be read in Excel. 4) Create company brochure complete with graphics that is ready for the printer and that the boss will approve. 5) Create Database that will track inventory of over 1400 products. 6) Write a 100 page document complete with footnotes and references and then save it in the form of a PDF that can be read in any PDF reader. 7) Using a WSYWIG HTML program, create a website for your small business, upload it to the web and make sure any browser can read it. 8) Write a corporate newsletter and merge all your contacts into it so it seems personalized. Anyway-- go get the idea. The actual fact is that most people spend the majority of their time in front of a computer while they are in a corporate environment. Since they're forced to use what their company uses, they're not going to put forth the effort to learn Linux so they can use it at home. Usability should be based on the Business Desktop, not the home user. And before anybody turns on the Napalm-- I'm a hardcore Linux user. No Windows products-- not even for games. However I also know how the suits think. And doing usabiity tests like this is just going to make them smirk. SnarlSlayer
Let's *dare* and imagine, even if only for a moment, that some of those developers have accepted the idea that Linux ain't for the mainstream, and thus code with that target market in mind, thus skipping some of the obvious basics for (perhaps) a more exhaustive feature list.
;)
Then the responsibility (of keeping things simple) might actually lie with the distro makers to carefully pick the default apps used, that is, only if they are indeed branding themselves as a desktop solution for *everyone*.
Interesting how "other" developers are quickly either stupid and/or don't have a girlfriend... yet, something about "doing it" for every "release" had me wondering if there was a hidden meme somewhere in there.
Me? I'm no developer. I'd much rather have a girlfriend.
You are absolutly right, but you are going against the ubuntu hype, so I'm affraid you won't be listened.
The whole concept of live CD is a waste of time and a shame for starter.
I did the same exact test here a few years ago when ubuntu came out, except we never went past windows for the simple reason that the girlfriend's PC didnt boot on CD by default and she didnt know what a BIOS was.
The target of live CDs is geeks and power users, basically absorbing the user base of the other distros, it's not about getting the users to linux.
Usability wise, ubuntu is a regression with less userfriendly tools than a SuSe or a Mandriva.
Live CDs are not for front end users, the front end user want a pre installed working system à la xandros eee.
Last time I caught the news, I heard that there was a group in Texas that got in big trouble for this.
I'd suggest that you find a girlfriend that's already been compiled elsewhere. If importing from certain countries (Thailand/Brazil/etc), you may want to ensure that the girlfriend is also compatible with your architecture and that you have complementary - rather than matching - peripherals.
The article several times suggests that the solution to some of these problems is, essentially, user education: having balloons that signal "new item installed" or wizards open the first time you launch a program, telling you how the program works. The problem is that this approach often doesn't work. For one thing, it annoys the piss out of experience users.
There's a simple cure for that: Make balloons/alerts of this sort an integral part of GNOME/KDE; and let the GUI preferences give the option: To show these balloons, to not show these balloons, or to show a small icon - not too small so it'll get noticed, but small enough as to not be intruding; maybe something of systray icon proportions.
For another thing, new users tend to ignore most of that information... mainly because they are being overwhelmed by new information and can't possibly assimilate it all. Take, for instance, the problem that was encountered when changing screen resolution. The tester changed the resolution easily, but then she clicked the "Keep settings" immediately, which locked her into graphic settings that were hard to change back. Part of the problem, I suppose is that the system allowed the user to make a ridiculous change. But part of the problem is also, perhaps, that the user is very used to clicking "OK" on any dialog that gets in the way: there are too many new things to read and learn, and the easiest way to get things done (in the mind of a new user) is to dismiss those annoying boxes as quickly as possible. Would a second popup, that described in detail why this low resolution was a bad idea (and how to undo it when desired), have changed anything? Doubtful. Most users would just click "OK" without reading it.
The solution for this argument is right there. It's possible to help users without overwhelming them. I believe Microsoft tackled this problem pretty well: if the balloon/message window has 10 lines of text telling you, in detail, why it's bad to change the resolution to so little, and suggest better resolutions, it'll look like a blob of EULA-type text and nobody's gonna read it. But if it were a window saying "Such a small resolution might make the screen unusable. Are you sure?" with a Yes/No/Help button, text this short will enter the user's mind before she even finds the Yes key.
All this to say that I'm by no means convinced that adding more balloons, wizards, and dialog boxes will magically make it easier for users to figure out what's going on. I don't know what the solution is: usability is a tough problem. There is a place for helpful information (balloons, tool-tips, etc.), reminders, and wizards. But too much of this becomes decidedly counter-productive.
That's true, but what the article points out, is that there's a certain magical amount of small, intuitive, nonintrustive pointers that regular users NEED in order to function.
If you own a country club, hiring a guy to come over every time someone looks around to ask "Do you want to know where the restroom is?" might be way too much, but nobody's going to sign up if they can't find the little, 10" x 8" sign on the wall saying "WC ->".
In my experience good UI design requires the very rare and special talent of setting one's ego aside and actually looking at things from another's perspective. Might this gift be what some tales refer to as "courage"?
Also, in usability testing, you quickly run out of proverbial virgins... y'know, the ones that feel like they're touching your product for the very first time.
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
This is extremely important to do if people are serious about Linux on the desktop. Anyone who's actually developed technology for an end user and seen their responses unfiltered knows that we developers are unconsciously forgiving of little flaws that are just easier to work around than to fix --- except for end users.
A computer-novice friend was using my computer to look up something on "the internet". He soon came to a page which was long & required scrolling. I showed him the scroll bar on the side of the browser window & demonstrated it by moving the scroll bar & showing him how the contents of the window moved as you do this.
His immediate question was "So you pull the bar down to go up & up to go down?"
I can confirm that this is a rather strange world we're living in. My wife wants to switch to Ubuntu...
Something else worth noting, that when compared to Windows, the naming of the projects code are much more creative and have a certain appeal to the non-business types. Compare 'Hardy Heron' (Ubuntu) or 'Leopard' (MacOS X) with 'Windows 7' (MS-Windows). Many people don't care about numbers and care more about getting the job done and feeling good at the same time.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
We should let the RIAA take them down for this one.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
From the comments on the original article:
regarding number 9: you can hold alt and lick on anywhere on an application to move it around.
Comment by Amir A â" April 28, 2008 @ 4:55 am
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
I heard after he gave his last girlfriend a Gutsy Gibbon, she left him... and threatened to have him arrested. She says she wasn't able to sit down for a week, and some of the scars just won't heal.
Thank you, you're a good crowd! I'll be here all week!
I've tried to teach my boyfriend how to use my laptop running Debian with WindowMaker as the window manager. Needless to say, he doesn't like it... Totally perplexed by most things.
Oh well.
Why can't Gnome/KDE/applications etc have "skins" based upon user experience? Create a new user, and the default behavior of the window manager is to gently guide the user through the learning experience. As the user progresses, less hand-holding is needed and perhaps more advanced features are exposed. Have a control panel applet that an advanced user could turn off all the newbie features, or, reset them for someone who doesn't learn as fast as the environment thinks they should. Perhaps new apps could launch a 'cut scene' or even a help screen on their maiden run, introducing the user to features and controls. And have a checkbox on the login screen that will allow advanced users to bypass all hand holding.
... the one question we care about-- is she hot?
This was a well-written article about a good experiment.
I went through a similar situation where I tried to introduce my mom to Linux by setting her up with Mandrake 8.1. It was a good distro - at least for me, a software developer - but Mom tends to be somewhat terrified of high tech, and after valiantly trying to do things, she just got fed up and asked me to install Windows.
One of her biggest problems was that Mandrake installed 3 different web browsers, 2 mail clients, and the proverbial "partridge in a pear tree." The availability of these browsers was fine for me, but Mom got confused, flustered, and finally gave up.
I'm thinking of trying again in the next couple of months - but this time with SymphonyOne, which offers her more of a "here's what you do," rather than a "what do you want to do?" approach. I'd feel like I was in a strait-jacket, but it'll probably work much better for her... and (hopefully) will get her using her computer more.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
It's interesting how much trouble she had, but the experiment is a little bit backwards. The issue here is the same thing would happen with windows; anyone here who has every volunteered to teach senior computing will definitely agree. I transfered my girlfriend over to ubuntu about when 7.04 came out, but it's foolish to expect anyone to know how to use an operating system out of the box (yes, including OS X). You have to give someone a crash course, or at least give them the sources to figure it out themselves. There are at least a few excellent ubuntu wikis out there which can easily help someone make the transition. Just throwing someone non-technical into any operating system will result in similar results. Hell, It happened to me when I needed to do a windows install for a project, even I was on the forums every ten minutes trying to figure out how the hell the whole thing is put together.
What about The Sims? This also applies to (fill in your favorite PC game or PC software). Until Linux in general or Wine can run mainstream programs as good as windows, upgrading to Linux is a dead issue. Seriously, you guys need to understand this. It's not the interface, it's the sheer lack of compatibility with mainstream software.
In PCLinuxOS, youtube works out of the box.
...that this software will get him laid?
As a Linux usability discussion grows longer, the probability of someone saying "you can easily do it with the command line" approaches one.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Am I the only one who skimmed the title and thought it was about drugs?
I've performed usability tests in the past and regardless of if you're a coder or a usability expert, they almost always reveal usability issues that seem unintuitive or which people want to "explain away" because they can't wrap their heads around what is happening. Usability testing is, however, a very underused scientific process in computing today.
That said, over the years a lot of general guidelines have emerged that can help designers avoid some of the really common mistakes that happen over and over and over again. From my own use of Ubuntu, it is clear there has not even been consistent use of those guidelines to get the low hanging fruit before going to the expense of a real usability test. There is much work to be done.
Personally, I think "file extensions" are a pretty evil concept, the way most operating systems today handle them.They are, indeed, a common usability problem, especially when one goes into hidden extensions and multiple extensions. Expecting users to know what three letter combination mean "program that does stuff" and which ones mean "data you can read or see or hear" is absurd, especially when they can only sometimes see them and what they see is not always the "real" extension. It is certainly an area where OS's could be significantly improved.
As the title says your stereotypes wrong. It's the "gammers" who are the smelly 20-somthing year olds who have no job and live in their mom's basments. UNIX geeks are 50 and 60 year olds with long grey pony tails, They went to school at UC Barkley in the 1960 or early 70s and now drive around in expensive hybred or electric cards
No, that's what gives this article credibility -- if a Linux geek said, "so I was making sweaty monkey love with my demonstrably cute girlfriend," instead of the infinitely more plausible, "I sat my 'girl friend' down in front of a Ubuntu installation to check software usability," then no one would believe it.
Seriously, he lost me at this sentence: "No clue was given to her that she should open up a terminal and type './flashplayer-installer'."
And that's *still* the crux of the problem with Linux for the average computer user -- no clue SHOULD be given for something that ridiculously geeky, because the user shouldn't HAVE to open a damn terminal window and type something so esoteric just to install a piece of software. I'm a professional 3D computer graphics artist who's used PCs and Macs for over 20 years (started out with Atari 8-bit computers back in 1982), but I'm not a hacker/programmer, and I wouldn't have known to type this command just to install a Flash player in my browser.
Until Linux developers can actually grasp the simple fact that 99.999 percent of all computer users *are not hackers/programmers* (and have no desire to become them), then Linux will never be as successful as Windows or OSX, period. Simple equation, kids.
Spot on. Seriously, guys, this sort of usability testing should have been done LONG ago. Linux is around 15 years old; GNU/Linux-based systems have been out there a LONG time, and these basic usability issues shoul dhave been solved aaaaaages ago.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
And here I was thinking some guy was testing a new strain on heroin with his girlfriend. Eh, heroin, Heron, Linux. All the users sound alike to me.
What irritates me about Ubuntu's Home folder layout isn't the presence of 'Documents', 'Music' etc. folders; it's the absence of a '.appdata' folder, or any environment-variable way of telling applications what folder to use as an appdata folder; which means that the root of your home folder ends cluttered full of files & folders of application settings.
What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
A friend once told me that "BMW motorcycle engines never used to overheat until they started putting temperature gauges on them."
/.
Microsoft: We spend millions on usability testing, and incorporate feedback in our products.
Linux: We usability test with our girlfriends, and then post results to
Ok, I misread the heading of this post as "Usability testing a Girlfriend." My first thought was, yeah, like that's an option for the average Slashdot reader....
But if my girlfriend can use Ubuntu without my help, then what will I do around the house?
In all seriousness, Ubuntu is easy to pick up. It's that initial jump from one OS to another and getting joe average to know why it's a good investment of their time and effort that can be the real hassle. Since Ubuntu doesn't come preinstalled on most systems, word of mouth is what we have. Fortunately, community is one of GNU/Linux's strengths these days.
I remember when I was first learning (a scant 4 years ago, still making me a noob by many accounts) one of the most helpful things I came across was a spreadsheet listing common windows programs and the linux equivalent to them. Neither my girlfriend(a relative computer novice) nor I have had much trouble learning the new programs once we knew what they were and what they did. I agree that there needs to be a bit more helpful info out there for people who don't want to dig around google searches for hours when they first start. Still, I think the period of adjustment is acceptable and maybe even better when compared to a user new to windows or OS X.
All it takes is the willingness to learn.
Exactly! For example, who needs a graphical way of setting up and specifying the relative position of dual screens? Just because Windows and probably Mac OS have had such capabilities since 1998, doesn't mean Linux needs it. New users should just "man xrandr" and learn the syntax like everyone else!
(Explanation of sarcasm: The 'Screens and Graphics' Xinerama front-end has rightly been deprecated in Hardy like the obselete xorg.conf-trashing piece of crap it is; and the new 'Screen Resolution' xrandr front end doesn't support this capability yet. Canoninical's Bryce Harrington is on record as saying that he "had hoped to spend time implementing this for Hardy, but bugs have taken precedence".)
What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
I have done my own testing on usability while making a Firefox extension and Thunderbird extension for importing photos to F-Spot ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7091 ). The first thing I realized is that sometimes as a designer, you start to get tunnel vision. If you have to add a dialog to explain a button, that might be a sign that the button should not be there period, should be moved, or changed into some other kind of element. The other thing I learned is my mother gets pissed off because "I keep changing things".;-)
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
In the same way, the label "Filesystem" isn't descriptive to a non-techie. She found the search interface, but didn't recognize that label as the one for searching everywhere. How about "Entire Hard Drive" or "All Hard Drives" or, as the article itself suggests, "Whole Computer" instead?
Indexing the partitions, migrating data, all that is potentially useful too, and may well be worth pursuing. But it's still a lot more complex than just picking some friendlier, more descriptive labels and adding a teeny bit more logic to the installer to apply them correctly.
yes! just look at the most recent smashing usability success put out by one of those proprietary companies.
VISTA!
uh, wait... i guess your point is built on a false premise. gigo, ya know.
seriously, OSes are complex entities. heck, walking around a new major city is a complex experience. everything can't be magically intuitive, although, things can be done to mitigate the ocmplexity.
in context, ubuntu is doing a *fantastic* job of making ubuntu usable for ordinary people.
i hooked up a friend with ubuntu and, shortly thereafter, he approached me and asked why microsoft was so insecure when this free operating system was so rock solid.
hint - i'm no expert and i set up his amd64 rig with the amd64 version of ubuntu. this caused extra h/w conflicts, so i recommend installing the i386 version of ubuntu - even on amd64 chips.
my son's daycare lab has a shiny new edubuntu terminal server (dell opteron, amd64 1.8 GHz dual core, 2 gig memory) with pii 200, 128 mb clients giving excellent performance. this success may well lead to the 15 computers in the main computer lab moving over from win2k to the edubuntu terminal server model. once we get our school nailed down, we will be sure to let other schools know about our model for success.
big journeys begin with small steps, and ubuntu is making those small steps. those who still think of linux circa 1999 are missing the boat and burning unnecessary cash and time. i burned almost 4 hours running spybot search and destroy in safe mode and installing firefox with flash and no script. what a waste of almost 4 hours - the only legit work was adding flash support and no script to firefox.
msft's predatory monopoly coupled with the turd that is vista is causing discord amongst the average computer user. my son's school's board member responsible for computer issues can't wait to ditch msft, the licensing cost, the licensing management, the horrible security and the reinstall dance.
and i thought i was going to get initial resistance.
now all we have to do is get the teachers willing to learn s slightly new way of doing things instead of just requiring others to learn.
What are you, a windows user? File extensions? I thought we used mimetypes to decide what a file was?
I'm not sure what the underlying assumption is here. Is it: A) Females are dumber than real Linux users or B) Girlfriends are dumber than real Linux users Which prejudiced assumption was intended? I'm curious.
Yes, that would make your comparison a bit more fair. But who cares? We just want to improve the usability. We just want lay people to be able to use a computer like a tool, a means to get something done, rather than an object/end in itself. It's irrelevant whether MS Windows can handle Linux the same way Linux can handle Windows. Can you imagine if Apple said, "Okay, we are now just as good as Windows --no need to improve usability"?
In the end, users don't care about petty rivalries between Windows and Linux. They just want to get the job done. This insightful article will hopefully point out how we can improve.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Go ahead and tell me that its easier to learn Windows XP (or Vista) than it is to learn Hardy Heron. Sit someone who has never used a computer down in front of a fresh Windows install and see how well that goes. Good luck!
Nah, it's the fact that it was a Spice Girls album they were looking for that they should be embarrassed about!
I think a lot of the problems she had could have been avoided if the tester gave her a few helpful tips beforehand, just to get the hang of things. Like "Use Add/Remove Applications to install most software/plug-ins". You would do the same thing if, for example, you were letting someone else drive your car. You might say, "It takes a little while to break, so make sure to do it early."
They did the same thing with Mandriva several years ago. And it passed quite well IIRC.
Part of me wants to agree that these "usability issues" should be recognized early on, but at the same time this is a whole different ballgame than learning Windows or even MacOS. Those are the platforms you learn when you're a kid and your parents or teacher or whoever first sits you in front of a computer. You watch them, you see what little tricks they do to make it work how they want it, and you then copy those when you play with the system. They don't sit you down in front of something you've never seen before and say, "Alright kiddo, go to it," that would be ludicrous.
I would imagine that if you had a kid and let them watch you use Linux, then finally let them use it themselves one day, it would be the same situation. Surely Linux is user-friendly enough for that.
It just seems to me that this is almost like giving someone a book in a language they don't know, then saying there must be something wrong with the language because the person takes a long time to understand it.
Firstly, I'd like to point out that the article rather insultingly assumes that all young women are computer illiterate and are by virtue of being female, suitable guinea pigs for usability testing.
Wasn't there an article a while back about the "mom" stereotype?
Personally, I think that this kind of testing is rather flawed.
The results of this test show that the girlfriend struggled because she wasn't familiar with the interface(s) involved, and had nothing to do with the intuitiveness of them.
For instance, it is not fair to say that GIMP is difficult to use simply because it is *different* to the leading, mainstream alternative. I happen to be a GIMP user, and that software is now second nature to me, but when I have to use Photoshop, I struggle.
Pidgin also happens to be very straightforward to use and understand in my opinion. But it's a complicated piece of software -- the whole concept of multiple networks and protocols in one client might take a few days of playing with the software to understand. That doesn't mean it's badly designed.
Also: much of this software has outstanding documentation (can the same be said of similiar Windows-orientated software?). I don't think requiring the user to read a little means that the interface is badly designed.
A particular (graphics orientated, again) piece of Windows software I use has a several-inch thick manual with it. In order to use it effectively, I had to read solidly for an hour at least to begin with. The interface is very well designed and very intuitive, but the fact I had to learn how to use the software doesn't mean it is not easy to use.
It seems to me that Linux developers are now more than ever trying to emulate Windows, rather than create interfaces that are intuitive. In some respects, this is why Mac OS succeeds where Linux fails.
I for one find Windows very painful and awkward to use... but that's simply because I'm so used to using Unix. That doesn't mean Windows is badly designed, or that Unix is good. It's down to what I know, and what is intuitive to me.
I like how the guy publicly posts his girlfriend's GTalk handle. Has he never been on the internet before?!?!
I think I'm going to have to sit my boyfriend down in front of the computer for the same test. Why is it always, "to test the usability of X, we will use the lowest common denometer of computer knowledge- the woman"? I'm sure there are other women lined up to complain about the periodical "Look, I tested usability on my girlfriend" Slashdot story. When my bf or family/friends have computer trouble they call me. All these stories have a thick sexist undercurrent.
I agree with his problem with invisible program installations. Freebsd and linux are the same when installing applications in not telling you what the name of the run time file is. You can't even look up a man page on the program if you don't know what the run file is. For freebsd its the same headache whether using pkg_add or ports although pkg_add is worse as you can often look in the compile directory in ports to find the actual run file. There needs to be a way to indicate the name of the file to be run, whether in a menu or on the command line so you know what to do after installation. Preferably it should be at the end of a pkg_add or port script.
Go ahead and mod me down, but we all know that's what the article is really saying...
I'll attest to the screen resolution problem, it even crops up during install. My onboard geforce 6100 graphics only work at 640x480 booting off of the DVD, when you go to install at that resolution the install wizard does not fit on the screen and there is no way to resize the window so you can see the Back and Next buttons. I managed to install just by tabbing to the buttons, but I was amazed that it wasn't caught in testing. That and a couple of other problems sent me running to fedora...
So I have 7.something - and no cds to burn the iso.
Fine, cos I found something called unetbootin. Should allow me to install from a separate partition or something. Only, when I try to run it, nothing happens. Ah, executable permissions. They look likely. It runs, I put all the details in etc, then asks to reboot. Fine, I click ok. NOTHING...
Reboot myself. Nothing...
Grrr.
I go back to the website. No FAQ or help, just a link to a thread on a forum. I try to search that, but you can only search the entire forum, not just the thread. I try to post a message. I need to create a login. What? A login? IT DOESN'T WORK! Why do I need to make a freaking login? The thread is just full of "Its so Great!" type fawning prat useless posts. Like **** am I going to wade through 35 pages of that turd.
So I try to search google for something maybe someone has had a similar problem. all I get are hundreds pages saying how great it is! About how its going to change the face of linux!
Seriously. This is why most people don't use linux. It's just full of gotcha after gotcha...
Stupid thing is ubuntu is great, and free! I'm sure this software works fab too, just not for me.
You can clearly see that the only picture of his "girlfriend" is a cardboard cut-out. (..just look at it..)
;)
A horse can't be sick, you know, even if he wants to.
I'm really a low 5-digit Slashdotter, but this ID is where I am now.
What's worse about nipples isn't that the learning curve is so steep (some animals in nature die before they learn) but the installation of nipples are universal to all units whereas they are only needed in about half the units.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Overall, I thought the tests were good, but they were essentially "MS Windows" flavoured tests. I tried a similar experiment with my wife the other day, albeit less rigorous. Let's have a look.
..... (I needed a PHD in rocket science to install and configure Samba under Ubuntu)...
1. Play a H264 encoded movie (aka. our online DVD collection)
- under Windows, the Operating System said was completely lost. Something about a missing codec - but no help.
- under Ubuntu, she was prompted with "do you want me to download and install the codec". She answered "yes" and was playing the movie within 30 seconds.
2. Install Sudoku
- under Windows, she was completely lost - however, she came across porn adverts, shareware nag screens and credit card payment requests.
- under Ubuntu, she clicked a few mouse clicks and managed to install Sudoku. The OS even installed the game in the games folder for her.
3. Create a birthday invitation in PDF format so everyone can read it - but can't modify it.
- under Windows, she was completely lost.
- under Ubuntu, she used Open Office and successfully created a birthday invitation in PDF format with little problem.
Re: the original article, I appreciate that some users are coming from MS Windows. However, think about the users that aren't coming from MS Windows. I can name you MANY, MANY things that are easier under Ubuntu. I guarantee you I can create a list of 20+ things that can be done under Ubuntu easily by a beginner, but can't be done under Windows without significant pain.
Now about that Samba installation and configuration thing
AC
At least after that, you can sudo make me a sandwich
We've been running Ubuntu for the past 7 months on my laptop. Since our daughter was born I've had the thinkpad in the living room hooked to the wireless router and my wife has had few complaints except when an update broke the wi-fi. Her only real complaint was that Firefox was different than IE but she adjusted pretty quick.
It sure doesn't sound like my experience.
The linux community tries in a lot of aspect to stray far far away from Windows out of principle yet fail to impliment the things Microsoft actually got right.
This is historically incorrect.
When Linus started making his kernel Windows NT was a new, unproven kernel and DOS and windows was a joke. Linus was familiar with UNIX and Minix in his academic background and built what he knew. The GNU software that completes the picture started as part of an effort to create Free replacements for UNIX software that was rapidly becoming closed.
The "Linux community" doesn't purposely try to be different from Windows because of its hate for Microsoft. From the start, GNU and Linux aspired to work like UNIX and be compliant with standards like POSIX. Not only were DOS and Windows less familiar to the interested parties, Microsoft products made no strategic effort to be compliant with any proper standard back in the day.
Also, it would be nice if you could give some examples of what MSFT *got right* that Linux-based OSes fail to implement (apparently "on principle"). Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE and the like all adopted the "automatic update" model amongst some other Microsoft advances.
The typical user should not have to open up a term window to install a program. It should be click and guide you through the rest. That was always my biggest complaint.
What are you talking about? I haven't opened a terminal window to install a software package on my desktop for years now! It isn't hard to find a "beginner's wizard" for installing software packages either--you can do it right from the GNOME equivalent of the start menu. Is it perfecet? No, but it's actually better than windows already--it is only different, and the biggest issue is that people are lazy and don't want to re-learn. It is a big reason Apple still has a small market share too.
Anyways, I find if you try to imitate the familiar you run into more frustrations than if you just try to make things work logically. If it looks different then users' expectations will be different. There are multiple XP-themed KDE desktop linux setups out there and none of them gained traction like GNOME-based Ubuntu that looks like nothing else in particular, except perhaps vaguely Mac-like. They suffer from an "uncanny-valley" sort of problem--they look so familiar, that when an imperfection is found it has an amplified, more jarring negative effect on the user.
Interestingly, that is a problem Vista has had--even more so than XP had. People expect the same, see somewhat the same, and then they are presented with messed up control panel dialogues, UAC, and so on and get extremely annoyed. It has proven more irritating to users than the dramatic win3.x to win9x transition.
Given that, I say forget about anti-MS "principles" AND brain-dead imitation. I think that Ubuntu, GNOME and even KDE 4 have not made great efforts at mimicking MSFT in their default behaviour and appearance to their benefit. It's easier to compete when you stand on your own.
MS is an exception to the rule. They don't compete based upon features the way other software has to. Most major software developers certainly do make use of usability testing to some degree. That said, some Linux developers do usability testing as well, just not for the entire distro that I've seen.
in context, ubuntu is doing a *fantastic* job of making ubuntu usable for ordinary people.The Ubuntu distro is facing a serious uphill battle. They have made strides, but it is clear they don't do significant usability testing or even apply usability guidelines to software before it is included.
I'm not writing this to belittle Ubuntu. I use it daily and it is fairly functional. It does have a lot of flaws, however, and it is a very good thing to expose them and discuss them and hopefully fix them.
(This was AVG running on W2K, installed on the second partition of a SATA drive, any or all of which could be factors in the problem, but still it's probably wise to disable any AV before running Wubi)
I've been trying to 'turn' him for ages, and thought the 'Install inside Windows' thing would be the clincher, but I think the experience probably put him off for another couple of years. Shame really, as this does seem a very intuitive distro (speaking as a Slackware user - in fact if you do an 'apt-get install emacs latex links build-essential' it even starts to look like linux )
[ ]Half Empty [ ]Half Full [x]Twice as big as it needs to be
I agree that getting one Linux distro to the point where the lowest common denominator can run it is a worthwhile goal. However, there are limitations of budget. You are talking about a company with what, about $10 million dollars worth of capital versus a $277 Billion behemoth. That's a difference on the scale of 5 orders of magnitude. If we go with Apple instead of MSFT, we are still at $150 billion, again, 5 orders of magnitude difference.
It's obvious that Shuttleworth knows about the gorilla of which you speak, it is also obvious that he knows something about budget constraints relative to his goal. Simply: asymmetric differences in budget require asymmetric techniques of warfare. A latter twentieth century nation state thinks in terms of winning wars and battles with overwhelming firepower. A guerilla thinks more along the lines of 'How do I continue to resist indefinitely in a self-sufficient fashion, while sapping the will of the occupying force?' and 'How do I (or my children) eventually construct a situation where there is no net benefit in occupying my country?'.
Operating systems are somewhat different, but the analogy holds. Shuttleworth will be thinking how he can get the most bang for buck out of the paid and unpaid developers, while running a business that can sustain itself with profits. That bang for buck comes from increasing the number of users incrementally, and cheaply, and eventually providing a situation where there is as little net benefit to staying with MS as possible. Maximum mindshare per dollar rather than per unit time. Another way of looking at it: every engineer has heard of the phrase "good, fast, cheap", pick any two. Desktop linux has to make do with good and cheap, while taking a long time, since 1991 in fact.
So rather than hire heaps of paid documentation staff, Shuttleworth spent the time thinking "How do I set the ground rules of an internet forum such that it provides superb documentation for free?" Once that's done, it's fire and forget. The answer is not amazing - create an environment where the newbie is unafraid to ask the question 1000 other people are thinking (i.e. rtfm, google it etc are banned), and reward those who are providing help with "status" in the form of a metric, i.e. "thanked x times in n posts".
It works.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
My fiancee uses it all the time. She steals my computer from me and makes me use my OS X laptop. It kind of makes me proud.
I hope some folks here notice the contempt expressed through "Is it usable enough for a girlfriend?" You're smart people here, yet there's little criticism of the illogic in discussing two people as though just one were capable of thought. Beginning with "This guy sits his girlfriend down...," the writer implies females of the species can't stand, sit, type commands or install Linux distributions without help from their male presumptive betters. It's a fine idea to test Linux by teaching its use to a nonexpert, but just don't call half of humanity idiots in the process, OK?
If they're meant to be computationally convenient, why do they have so few prime factors?
There are reasons why democracy does not work nearly as well as capitalism.
-- David D. Friedman
Now the tag "girlfriend" lists one article on Slashdot.
My girl is scary bad with technology in general. If it's got more buttons than her phone, she gets freaked out over the smallest problems. On a scale of 0 to 9 she would rate about -15 for patience with technology. I actually convinced her to try out Kubuntu and she seems ok with it, other than hating open office simply because the UI is different from MS office. I don't seem to have a problem with it simply because I may be one of the 15 geeks in the USA that hasn't gotten to know it intimately. She seems to get along with KDE better than Gnome, simply because the layout and menu is similar to windows. YMMV though.
A couple of years later I met her when she was simultaneously dating three other guys. Again I requested IO but that time I got ENOSPC.
By the time I left college I was still ENOMOUNT.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
PlanetSide/WoW/Assassin's Creed/Age of Conan? Microsoft Office? And do so without loading an emulator or run them through virtualization? Without compiling anything? If so, sign me up. If not... go back to the drawing board.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
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You should come back, a lot has changed since Oligarch was still a realm.
There's a lot more to the game now than there used to be, which can be a mixed blessing, but it's definitely a blessing in the end :-)
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
A sample population of 1 can be expanded to a population of 1. Garbage in, garbage out. This is not a usability study, it is a usability observation.