Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: Online book for usability

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "David" == David Allouche <address@hidden> writes:

    David> On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 02:27:05AM -0400, James Blackwell
    David> wrote:

    >>> Tonight I bumped into an online book that covers usability
    >>> with GUI programs.

    >>> Though arch isn't a gui program, enough of the concepts still
    >>> apply that I'd like to humbly suggest that others may be
    >>> interested in it.

    David> Interesting reading, thanks.

I'm curious what you found interesting about it.

To expand on my earlier "-1": I thought that for its target (programs
whose market is bigger than a 100% share of Mac users) it was about 3X
as long as it needed to be, and that for JB's implied context ("arch
isn't gui, but") the self-evaluation that the book is relevant to
programs with more than 10^7 paying customers is correct: it's not
really very applicable to arch design.

Certainly, some of the principles are, but those also tend to be the
principles that Tom (primus inter pares) explains regularly, some of
them daily.  On the contrary, one of the book's main themes was "ask
any five random people, they don't even need to be users yet, and do
what makes them happy", which contradicts Tom's regular statement that
even if everyone who posts to to arch-users agrees on a UI issue,
that's of less importance than the instinct of any _one_ of several
experienced developer/users.


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