[haiku] Re: Who is Haiku for?
- From: Johan Aires Rastén <johan@xxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 09:36:03 +0100
On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 11:41 PM, Nicholas Blachford
<nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> So, who is Haiku for?
>
> 1) Casual users
> 2) Geeks
> 3) Both
Good question, I'm glad someone brought it up!
As others have said, I think you need at least one more category. I'll
add my interpretations and turn the list around for added suspension..
1) Geeks. Those who have using computers as an interest/hobby. They
have a good understanding of how the OS and computers in general work.
Probably won't have any problems learning powerful shell commands,
keyboard shortcuts or strange controls. If some problem arises they'll
sort it out by reading manuals, ask on the mailing lists or maybe even
have a look in the source files :)
I used to be in that category but nowadays I'm in:
2) Users. Those who use the computer as a tool to achieve some other
goal. Know their way around a computer but are really only interesting
in getting things done as easily as possible. Will probably learn a
few advanced commands or shortcuts but no more than necessary. Uses
Google and maybe forums to solve problems.
And judging from the replies I've gotten when I've tried to discuss
HCI issues, but with no intention to insult: As programmers, most of
you belong to the "geeks" category and seem to think that the rest of
the world is "users". While in fact it consists mostly of:
3) Regular people. They want to read their email and most of them seem
to believe that the Internet consists of about 20 webpages (of which
they use less than half). They think the monitor is called "computer"
and the big box on the floor is the "harddrive". They can only do
things they've been shown exactly how to do or possibly something else
if it's very clearly labeled. If they need help they'll ask a friend
or call support.
For completeness I guess I could also add:
0) Ultrageeks. Those who almost exclusively use text shells and tiling
window managers. You know, people who write operating systems for fun
;)
I agree with Humdinger that everybody probably wants an easy-to-use
UI. But I think one of the problems is that most of the geeks are
unable to look at it from something else than their own perspective.
If they can use the UI effectively they're sure that it's perfect for
everybody. They don't mind reading manuals so they assume that anyone
can and wants to read a manual to figure something out. And of course,
many seem to believe that interaction design is only about choosing
colours and deciding if buttons should be square or rounded.
So if I'm allowed to add decimals to my adjusted scale I think Haiku
is currenly designed for the 1.0 - 2.0 range. Personally I'd like to
expand it to 1.0 - 2.5 but many of the arguments I hear in HCI
discussions here would be best suited for 1.0 - 1,5
//Johan
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