I was trying to show somebody how to use JOSM today. Massive fail. Executive summary: Do people know that JOSM has these newbie usability problems, and if I put resources into fixing them (without removing functionality or impeding experienced users), would those fixes make it back into the source tree?
1) First (and I realize this is probably a Java / Mac thing), we couldn't paste a URL into the URL window. Fortunately, the drag-n-drop code worked (massive hoorays to whomever added that). 2) JOSM has the usual GIS problem that it will happily render off-screen with no indication that anything is wrong. True, this is fine for the sophisticated user, but nobody starts off sophisticated. Perhaps if JOSM noticed that nothing got drawn within the clipping frame, and drew an arrow in the middle saying "Your data is thataway", it wouldn't be a "big black box of fail". 3) She may have used an older version (but definitely has used potlatch), but the first thing she did was select a box to try to zoom in. She successfully zommed in with "Zoom to Select", but then tried to zoom in again, and succeeded in grabbing and moving all those points. That *would* have been massive fail if she found the upload button, even if she did manage to move them back to very nearly the right location. I helped her find Undo. 4) She selected a way, and then tried to move the node because the road had been extended. Of course, she moved the entire way. (This mnay not be easy to fix). 5) She went into insert node/way mode with the way still selected, in order to extend it. It ignored her clicks. This is a usability fail. Never ignore a user's input. If it can't be used in this context, then say why. 5) It *really* bothered her that in insert node/way mode, she had a red line from the tail node. She is resourceful and figured out that ESC would terminate the adding. But that de-selected the way, so she had to go into select mode, go back and select it again in order to tag it. 6) "You geeks must really like tedium, because it's wicked boring to have to select/delete, select/delete, select/delete, select/delete all these inapplicable tags". I reassured her that we don't like it either, but that didn't serve to explain why she couldn't select a range of tags to delete them. I've been hired this week as a Community Ambassador by Cloudmade. It's my job to help people map. If I have to fix JOSM to get them to map, then that's what I have to do. But I'm also really NOT interested in taking over JOSM development; that's NOT my job. So please tell me how I can contribute to JOSM in a way that helps me recruit new mappers, but which is also acceptable to all the currently JOSM users. -- --my blog is at http://blog.russnelson.com | Delegislation is a slippery Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | slope to prosperity. 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-323-1241 | Fewer laws, more freedom. Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | Sheepdog | (Not a GOP supporter). _______________________________________________ josm-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/josm-dev
