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Weblog:   Refining for usability
Subject:   Twitchy Finger
Date:   2004-04-28 08:30:24
From:   lousyd
I have a twitchy finger. I'm an "advanced" user, but a lot of the stuff I really don't need to tweak, personally, and I often end up just messing something up. I'd like to have options available, but sufficiently out of sight.
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  • Twitchy Finger
    2004-04-28 10:33:08  leinir [Reply | View]

    I have been lobbying for a particular way of fixing this for some time now. The way that I see would best fix the problem of hiding features from users is what can be found in the KDE print dialog. This is no Advanced settings dialog to alienate users from potentially great options, no user level stuff to insult the user's intelligence, it is simple a way to hide less often used options, so people like you and me with, as you put it, twitchy fingers don't happen to randomly fiddle with things that you should have really kept your hands off ;)

    Not only is this good for usability, it is also something which will not need a change in the KDE APIs, as you can simply implement it into the programs individually and very simply, simply by copying the KDE Print dialog's way of doing it, which is very simple: One button to change the visibility of a container with extra options, which is off by default.

    Just my ? .02 :)

    ..Dan // Leinir..
    http://www.leinir.dk
  • Jono Bacon photo Twitchy Finger
    2004-04-28 08:39:14  Jono Bacon | O'Reilly AuthorO'Reilly Blogger [Reply | View]

    I think this is the key. The more advanced things do need to be further out of sight. The problem is that too many options can confuse someone. It is all about a balance between the different types of user. this is where I feel a schema type of approach would be useful.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.