Hello Thomas,

On Mon, 2005-06-27 at 08:46 +0000, Thomas Reitelbach wrote:
> On Sunday 26 June 2005 18:51, Enrique Perez-Terron wrote:
> > I just installed licq-1.3.0-1.fc2.i386.rpm on Fedora Core 3 and started
> > the program.
> 
> ...
> 
> Thank you for your very detailed feedback. I see there are some usability 
> issues.
> 
> Do you have some precise ideas how to make it better?

What I miss most is some more basic help text(s). Perhaps I will write
an introductory text to introduce the basic concepts and how they are
related to one another. I imagine some 150 - 250 words or so. (This
paragraph has 44 words.) 

If you don't know what exactly ICQ is beyond the most vague idea of
instant messaging, a user needs some introduction, providing a mental
map, before she will "take" what the short UI labels try to suggest. 

The first-time user is quite open-minded and ready to accept what she
gets, but she still needs help to adjust her expectations to the
reality.  Since user backgrounds vary so wildly, a short introduction
helps "coordinate" their expectation sets.

It would then be nice if that text and the labels coincided in how
things were named. It is generally easier to come up with a consistent
wording in labels and messages if such an introduction text already
exists.

I think I will play around a little more before I decide what I think.
In my post I did suggest some more verbose labeling, but I feel at the
same time I was too verbose. People don't read long texts. (Or they do
when they have to, but until then they are annoyed :)

Perhaps the registration wizard is a place where parts of that
introductory text could be presented piecemeal. What about mouse-over
"tool-tip" texts? I have seen it already exists for the small computer
icon at the bottom of the main window. Maybe write a few such texts for
the buttons in the "Owner Manager" windows.

I am still not sure I'm not missing anything about what "owner" intends
to say. Does it cover anything else than simply "account"? (Beside the
formality, that the "owner" is a human, owner of an account; but "Owner
Manager" is probably not intended to manage me, you, etc, but our
accounts?)

I probably should also have a look at the "original" clients from
icq.com in order to say a word or two in the intro about what is what,
if there are any important differences.

While I write, ideas begin to pop up in my head, but I shall discipline
myself to elaborate them offline, and then send you something
consistent. I hope I manage to do it before I become to spoiled by
excessive knowledge :^)

Regards, Enrique



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