website mockups, what is fedora?

[Stephen John Smoogen]

2009/8/22 Máirín Duffy <mairin at linuxgrrl.com>:
> On Sat, 2009-08-22 at 02:01 -0400, Ben Boeckel wrote:
>> *sigh* Using KMail now with mail delivery on and now I forget to check the receiver.
>>
> okay ill resend my reply
>
> Thanks for giving it a try. Here are the problems I see with the mockup:


Ok I think I see where the 'fundamental breakdown' is coming in on the
mockups. The KDE 'spirit' has always seemed to be about letting people
know everything possible, and letting a person make their own
decisions. In fact if one thing that gets more flame wars is anyone
'dumbing' down an interface by hiding choice. It goes with the
assumption that man is innately curious and will want to play with and
know he can play with anything. This shows up in the mockups with
people giving tons of choices and letting innate curiosity fill in
questions.

The other view is that people have shutdown their natural curiousity
with the 'caution of adulthood'. They become confused and distracted
and are psychologically unable to make 'good' decisions on things they
know little about. So by limiting down choice you are able to get more
acceptance from people so that they feel comfortable using the
'unknown' item.

The issue I think between the two is what population is larger of the
two. From the studies I have seen, it seems that the second population
(easily confused/intimidated/scared/cautious/whatever you wish to put
here) is the larger part of the population. I am not talking about
complete new people here. People who have used computers all their
lives will still show up as just wanting the cautious 1 click method
because they have too many other concerns on their minds. [I have long
rants from former co-workers who find the Gnome desktop too
complicated which after questioning them find out that it didn't allow
them to get their job done in 1-2 clicks...]

The design challenge is that these people are not the only population
around. People who are 'adventurous', wanting to feel more in control
by seeing all the choices possible; the ones who throw out firefox
after they find that most of the things they could have played with
are hidden behind about:configs; they get turned off by being what
they see as being herded. So the issue is getting them off of the easy
pages as quickly as possible to the 'Expert' pages. I would say that
for some of them what you want is not just send them to the
Spins/Technology Preview pages but send them to the Spin Maker as
quickly as possible.

The challenge for the adventurous 'all-choice' population is to
realize that they aren't the lion share of people.








-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?
-- Robert Browning