My chief problem (which is not at all troublesome!) is with my fat fingers. The front panel buttons are somewhat small, and if one is not sure about whether a putative "push" has worked, one is likely to go from "touch" to "hold."
Clearly, making the buttons and the front panel larger is an inappropriate solution to this problem, although the button spacing on the P3 is a bit easier to use...that extra millimeter or two makes quite a difference. I do much better with a mouse on a screen image. There has been, off and on, some discussion of a screen GUI for the K2 & K3, though I haven't seen any contributions to this thread for months. Utilities like FLDIGI and FLRIG contain a few of the front panel functions such as volume, power, etc. as well as frequency, and it would not be difficult to write some parody of a complete interface, using the scripting language for the K3. I am not sure just how practical the result would be to use; there are many functions on the front panel. It would probably be possible to use the <shift> and <ctrl> keys to duplicate the touch/hold dichotomy of the actual front panel. Has anyone given substantial thought to this? It is tantamount to designing a remote software control panel for the K3... Please, no flames...I can already hear the screams of anguish from those K3 users who do not want their box soiled by contact with a computer, e.g. "why did you buy a K3 if you hate it so much?" [I don't hate my K3, I love it.] John Ragle -- W1ZI ===== On 4/15/2012 4:57 PM, Bill Frantz wrote: > Many people who are involved with User Interface (UI) design > think that user errors frequently reflect design flaws in the > UI. While I wouldn't go as far as to say all user errors result > from UI flaws, I do think that better UI design can > significantly reduce the number or severity of user errors. > > My wife (KI6SLX), a retired Apple quality assurance manager, had > a long conversation with an Elecraft representative at RadioFest > in Monterey recently. Her interest was whether she could learn > to use the radio. (She has no HF operating experience. Her 2+ > year use of a FT-60 has been punctuated with frequent screams of > anguish.) As he led her through the UI, she noticed that there > was a logic to the way things worked. She realized she could > build a mental model of the radio's operation and possibly even > use it without constant reference to the manual. That > conversation is one of the reasons I now have a K3. > > Is the K3 UI perfect? Of course not. But, it is quite good. One > way to make it better is to look at user errors and ask, "How > can we change the UI to reduce the chance of this error occurring?" > > Cheers - Bill, AE6JV > > On 4/13/12 at 12:47,km4ik....@gmail.com (Ian Kahn - Ham) wrote: > >> It's a safe (but unscientifically generated statistic) bet that >> 70-80% of the issues/problems reported on this forum are user >> error or lack of knowledge/understanding about the rig. > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Bill Frantz | Privacy is dead, get over | Periwinkle > (408)356-8506 | it. | 16345 > Englewood Ave > www.pwpconsult.com | - Scott McNealy | Los Gatos, > CA 95032 > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home:http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help:http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post:mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by:http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list:http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > > -- Sent from my lovely old Dell XPS 420 -- Sent from my lovely old Dell XPS 420 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
