[openbeos-cdt] Fwd: Who is Haiku for?

From: Johan Aires Rastén <johan@xxxxxxxx>
To: openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:47:42 +0100
I'm splitting this off from Haiku ml, as I think this could be of
interest for CDT.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: PulkoMandy

This is not at all how I think when building an interface. I'm
somewhere around 0.5 myself, but I know it's very important to design
a graphical UI properly. A good UI should allow :
-Simplicity : this is for level 3 users. Not too much buttons, only
put what's really needed.
-Discoverability : this is for level 2 users : allow to find advanced
features with menus, label keyboard shortcuts and not hide them
-Efficience : for level 1 : allow to do everything with keyboard shortcuts
-CLI binding for level 0 : allow to do everything from command line
for easy scripting.

Haiku manages to have all of them quite well, actually. The CLI
binding is totally unobtrusive (think of commands like hey or alert).
Discoverability comes from both simplicity and efficience if you mic
them properly. Avoid having an "advanced" button hiding anything
complex, and it's fine.
---------------------------------------------------

First I'd like to extend PulkoMandy's points on the low end:
- Simplicity : What he said + not less than what is needed either.
- Discoverability : No hidden functionality. Use only standard widgets
that behave consistently and are visibly identifiable as such.
Clicking a button performs the action indicated by the button
icon/text. Right-clicking on something opens a context menu related to
that object, if applicable. Experienced or not, I don't want to try to
find things that respond differently.


And here are a few things in Haiku that I think go against these points:
- The window title tab has a lot of hidden functionality.
- The UI doesn't look bad but I think some widgets, for example text
buttons, blend too much with the rest.
- Barely anything indicates that I can interact with it if I hover the
pointer above it.
- Tracker is kinda awkward to use with default settings unless you
know keyboard shortcuts.
- RGB colour picker is very difficult to use unless you know RGB
colour mixing. I think it's very difficult for most people to get the
result they want.
- If you revert everything on a settings dialog and change your mind,
I don't think you can undo.
- Some menu options can both be clicked to trigger an action or
hovered to reveal a sub menu. I think the click option is semi-hidden
functionality even if it's _sometimes_ marked by an ellipsis.


//Johan
[openbeos-cdt] Fwd: Who is Haiku for?

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