[TriLUG] User Friendliness

[Mike M]

This response grew beyond its original intended scope.  Apologies
for this expansion without appropriate earlier quotations.

On Fri, Jun 04, 2004 at 07:20:16AM -0400, Magnus Hedemark wrote:
> 
> Part of the problem, IMHO, is that FOSS is usually lead by programmers, 
> who are more often than not lousy at UI design.  There is a natural 
> resistance to non-programmers giving any sort of direction in application 
> design.  This is one of the major downsides to the Open Source development 
> model.

I am going to support the engineer's interfaces.  For the most part,
UI designed by engineers are pretty good.  There are stunning examples
of failures in all fields of engineering, of course, but these are
few in comparison to the successes.  The "fancy" designers are
responsible for the attack on engineer's UI skills.  These designers
were not even part of the equation until engineers gave them tools
with which to ply their trade.

Many of the CLI interfaces designed by engineers are elegant.  They
are not meant for the sheep.

Windows is diminished by having a poorly maintained and weak CLI.

GUIs are terrible for the algebra of expression.  You can't easily write
macros to link programs from different vendors having different GUIs.
GUI as Good Design is overly used.

As for the allegation that engineers are opposed to implementing user
feedback on UI, I say that unless the feedback is part of a well-funded
study of a market segment, the engineer will never succeed in deflecting
this attack.  There are too many disparate and ever-changing feedback
comments to incorporate coherently.

I think the goal of User Friendliness would be advanced more through 
a program that allows vendors to certify platforms and peripherals
against a stable Linux benchmark.  Imagine your plight as a digital 
camera vendor having just completed work on Linux 2.4 when you learn
that the 2.6 kernel significanlty changes the way device drivers
interact with the kernel.  Microsoft understands this situation and 
give vendors a stable target to shoot at.  If the FOSS community
created and committed to a stable device interface model, it would
be easier to use Linux with cameras, printers, scanners, music, video,
voice comms, etc.

I think live-CD distros succeed because they draw a line in the
sand and declare their line to be the benchmark. Then they engineer
solutions to adapting to many platforms and peripherals.  Things
Just Work.  It irritates the purists, but they have a different
agenda.  To me, it seems, the live-CD is the epitome of User Friendly.
What more could you want, I wonder?
-- 
Mike

Moving forward in pushing back the envelope of the corporate paradigm.