Hi Sebastian, I think you read my mail too literally :).
We do not disagree. My comment about "Don't make me think" is that what applies for the web is not quite the same as for a programming environment. For example, on the web, it is more profitable to assume that everyone is a newcomer, while in a tool where you spend a lot of time this is not necessarily the case. That said, of course, doing usability experiments is indeed useful (and hard to grasp :)). I did not argue against that. It would be great to start any effort in this direction. Cheers, Doru On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 12:49 PM, Sebastian Sastre < [email protected]> wrote: > Our engineering bias make us think too literally some times. > > Let's stay scientific but use the designer hat instead of the > mathematician hat. > > I know is for the web, but don't you have the feeling that you can design > an experiment in a way that will converge to *the same usability > principles*? > > There are things in Krug's way to document the experiment that could have > the same degree of validity even for hardware devices! > > *Don't make me think, *as usability principle, is the most generous thing > you can do for the user. When you do that, what you are also doing is > saving the user's neocortex energy to solve other problems (their social, > environmental or personal problems). Is how you help them to change their > worlds. That's the closest thing to your mission accomplished. > > Cheap idea for us: > > 1. Design a simple experiment. And yes, simple *for* *them* is not the > same as simple for you! > 2. One morning per month (maybe that's too much, one every 3 months would > be a huge leap forward) > 3. Take 3 or 4 computer science students unfamiliar to Pharo, I'll say > that's the adequate audience > 4. Bribe them to participate with a cappuccino with croissants or something > 5. During the experiment, ask them *what are you thinking now* every time > their flow is interrupted > 6. Discover their assumptions. Don't explain. Listen! (and document). Take > notes like crazy* > 7. Don't panic by overwhelming issues. Discuss with colleagues or publish > in a private wiki for the team or something > 8. Decide what are the 3 most blocking entry barriers and show that to the > team. We need to discuss *the discovered issues* do, together, something > about them > > > *Your mission here is not educate the guys, only to document which are *their > assumptions*. You might feel frustrated by the state of education today > or the poor preparation they had or the bad influence of industry vices or > how anxious and distracted young people are these days. Nothing about that > should change your mission of *discovering their assumptions, *so the > best is to ask them, listen, document and share with maintainers. > > > > > On Jan 3, 2014, at 7:48 AM, Tudor Girba <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks for bringing this up. > > Yes, we should care about usability. > > And I agree that usability is attainable as long as you approach it with > consistent discipline. It's similar to designing code: you start asking > questions, figure out what the right questions are, and then stick to it. > > I like Steve Krug's Don't make me think book. However, please keep in mind > that the lessons in the book apply specifically to the web. An environment > like Pharo should not obey exactly the same things. > > But, as Esteban says, let's focus on the future, and keep usability high > in our list of concerns. Even if we might not know how to do it now, simply > sticking with it will make us better in the long run. > > Cheers, > Doru > > > > > On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 10:38 AM, Esteban Lorenzano <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Hi Sebastian, >> >> I feel your pain :) >> >> we are aiming to focus Pharo 4 in “modularisation and tools”, to enhance >> what we have currently. >> Now… one of the biggest problems we have is that people is so used to the >> old tools that they don’t even realise that we can do a lot better. And >> most possible some people will react violently to any change… but well, we >> will do it anyway, with your help. >> Let’s all together build a better IDE for the future :) >> >> Esteban >> >> On 03 Jan 2014, at 01:13, Sebastian Sastre <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> Guys is no mystery that we have some issues with UI. >> >> It's not so bad either, we have many things that are light years ahead of >> other but we consistently miss some really basic stuff from the >> Human-Computer-Interactcion point of view. >> >> The community is biased towards engineering and unbalanced regarding to >> design so this is no surprise (why this happens is another interesting >> conversation). >> >> UI is not that hard when you know what to pay attention to but we need >> first to decide if we care about usability and the developer experience at >> all. >> >> This fantastic talk from Steve Krug exposes what's the least you can do >> for the usability of any software. >> >> >> http://blip.tv/business-of-software/steve-krug-on-the-least-you-can-do-about-usability-1566021 >> >> sebastian <https://about.me/sebastianconcept> >> >> o/ >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- > www.tudorgirba.com > > "Every thing has its own flow" > > > -- www.tudorgirba.com "Every thing has its own flow"
