Jan: It was last November, when we were still on SourceForge. Here are the ones that remain:
1) Installation issues. > > [snip] > > The struggle I've run into with many Mac users, though, is just that they > have to install R and then RKWard. This is very unintuitive for people who > aren't used to installing anything more involved than the Facebook app on > their cellphones. I.e., "digital native" undergrads. It would be great if > those could be bundled together again. > > With the Windows package, the issue is that it's just a .zip and you can > run it from anywhere. People really aren't used to that, and they don't > know how to add a shortcut to the Start > menu/giant-useless-screen-with-live-advertisements. Also, many people are > confused/freaked-out when a scary-looking black terminal window comes up > upon starting it. The Windows package also seems pretty fragile. Most of > the Windows students have tossed it and reinstalled it at least once. It's > intermittent, and I haven't been able to reproduce it, but it just stops > working at some point. The terminal window comes up, and that's all. I'd > give you guys more information if I had it. Just generally speaking, the > Windows version is not as reliable as the Mac, I'm finding. > > > 2) Data import > > This is just rather confusing. You go to File or the Open... menu in the > toolbar, and go to Import, and then there are a bunch of options. You have > "Import Data," then a line, then "Import format," which is a submenu about > importing data. If you use the first one, it just opens up the SPSS data > importer, and there's no way to tell it otherwise. I have started providing > my classes with .sav files for everything to just spare myself the headache > of pointing out again and again, that they actually need to go to "Import → > Import format → Import text / CSV data." It doesn't make sense because > the way that menu is organized, it looks like that is some sort of separate > function from importing data, because it's under the line separating it > from "Import Data." > > Once they navigate to "Import text / CSV data," however, the problems > continue, because despite the fact that we've already ostensibly told the > software that we're working with .csv or whatever, there are a bunch of > options where we have to tell it again. The default format is "None," and > the options for the quick formats (which are likely all anyone will need in > most cases, especially in a class where a teacher is providing the data > set) are on the bottom left, looking not-very-important. This could maybe > be fixed just by moving elements around, like putting the format selection > settings in a dropdown menu at the top, labeled with "Please select the > format of your data" or something. Then rename "None" to "Custom" and put > it at the bottom of the list. > > Every time I try to use a CSV in class, I import it in front of god and > everyone on the projector, then demonstrate running the analysis, and say, > "Okay, is everyone with me?" and half of the students' hands shoot up and I > go look at their screens and they have the entire table in one column and > the analysis won't run, of course. > > The quickest/easiest fix right away for this would be to just kill the > "Import Data" entry, rename "Import format" to "Import data format" and > move it above the line in the menu, separating it from the script options. > Just doing that would at least avoid the problem of people finding > themselves stuck in the SPSS format importer, trying to feed it CSV data > or whatever. > It is worth noting that either Thomas or Meik pointed out that the format could be changed when doing "Import Data," but I hadn't noticed after several years of using the software, so... Kinda hard to see, maybe. > 3) Distributions dialogs > > I only started using these this semester, so I hadn't noticed, but these > are unintuitive enough that I decided to just get the students to do them > in the R Console. > > In the "r" dialogs (i.e., the ones that call rbinom and rgeom, etc.), the > values that will be fed into R are filled in by default. Why? That seems to > communicate, for example, that the "normal" thing to do when looking at a > binomial probability is to set the number of "successes" to 0.95, and only > 1 trial, and with a 50% probability, when actually, these are likely to all > be different. I think these should just be blank. > > "Vector of quantiles" really ought to be renamed "Number of successes." > I'll be honest here: I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do here, > so the only way I figured out how to use these dialogs was by clicking the > "Code" button to see what commands it would be calling, and then reading > the CRAN documentation on those functions. The CRAN documentation was much > clearer. > > It would be nice if there was another calculator that called the "d" > functions as well... Not that I've really ever used either of these, but > they are pretty important for teaching undergraduate stats. > [snip!] 5) Plotting issues of various kinds > > I can't seem to figure out how to make a grouped barplot out of the Plots > → Barplot dialog. I've been telling my students to do it via the "N to 1 > Crosstabulation" dialog, where it works fine. > > A Q-Q/Normality plot in the Scatterplot dialog would be awesome. The only > place I can find that in RKWard seems to be one of the options in the > Scatterplot Matrix dialog. > > It would be very helpful if the Scatterplot pulled axis labels from the > Label header, or, if empty, the variable name itself, for the variable by > default. Right now you have to enter labels manually. This results in me > getting a lot of test answers labeled "Xrange" and "Yrange," which I still > give full marks for if they are obviously the right variables. > —There was one more point, but it was addressed already. I realize it's a big list. This is my 3rd time teaching this class with RKWard, and despite the bumps, it's still my favorite. On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 3:12 PM, Jan Wort <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Aaron, > I can imagine that is causes trouble in class. I wonder - can you tell us > what the problems were (what they tried and what they expected) or direct > me to the previous discussion of the topic? > > Users (like students) rarely fail to point out issues one oversees as a > designer or developer! > > Kind Regards > Jan > > > > Aaron Batty <[email protected]> schrieb am 23:50 Dienstag, > 29.September 2015: > > > Jan: > > Thanks for bringing these things up; we were discussing them last fall, > because they cause my students no end of consternation. They have a > terrible time importing datasets. > > > Aaron > > On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 1:33 AM, jan <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear RKWard Devs, > > Since I was recently working again more with RKWard (analysing usability > data…), here are some usability problems I found. I tired to estimate > how hard they are to fix, so one could focus on the most effective fixes. > > I split them in different mails, so that the issues stay separated. > > 1) Reading CSV Data > =========== > > First row as col names (easy/medium difficulty fix) > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > It took me a long time until I found how to get the first row as column > name. Assumed reason: The checkbox for the option (nicely put on the > first tab!) is somewhat squeezed between other elements. On Linux it > looks like it is part of "quick options", on Mac this impression is even > more extreme, since it resides in some darker-colored box. > > Violated Heuristics: Usability, Standards (all other options have some > sort of headline) > > Proposed Fix: Give it a space on its own (an own line) and/or a headline > > > Aside there are several smaller issues I found. > > Wordings (Easy fix) > -------------------------- > > a) In "Column names in first row" (1st tab) it is unclear if the first > row is the CSV’s or the resulting data.frame. (Suggestion: "Use first > line as column names" (?)) > b) "Default": On the second tab there are many "Defaults", but it is > unclear what this default is. > c) "Edit Object" (1st tab, save to options): This seems to open the > object after import in the table view, but it suggests it somehow > directly changes some object (like a mixin or an overwrite...) > (Suggestion: "Open after Import" or "View after import") > > Active/Inactive Fields (Medium) > ----------------------------------------- > > Depended on other fields, some radiobutton options are active or > inactive. Sometimes it is hard to follow why, and the many inactive > options irritate > Possible fix: Using Dropdowns (?) like in RStudio’s import > > Preview (Difficult) > ----------------------- > This is probably hard to implement but a preview of the first 5 or so > imported lines would be great (also RStudio inspired) > > Flow: Call the file selector (easy to medium) > ---------------------------------------------------------- > Before any option makes any sense, I file needs to be loaded. So > flow-wise it would make sense to open the file picker right away. It > also would match user expectations, since it is standard in many other > applications. > > > > > Kind Regards, > Jan > _______________________________________________ > rkward-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/rkward-devel > > > > _______________________________________________ > rkward-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/rkward-devel > > > > _______________________________________________ > rkward-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/rkward-devel > >
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