Custom Partition Fedora 18

[jonc]

On 02/18/2013 07:19 PM, Tom Horsley wrote
> But if you read some of the articles where the justifications for
> things like Gnome 3 have been presented, the developers are constantly
> talking about how they are doing it all for "typical users". The problem
> is that these typical users are all totally imaginary and exist inside
> the designer's heads.
>
> If they developed stuff they actually wanted to use themselves, there
> would at least be a few real users instead of a crowd of imaginary
> typical users.
>

I just dismiss that "typical user" stuff as PR fluff.  What they going 
to say?  We develop it for atypical users?

I think developers, not just FOSS developers, usually make an effort to 
create software users will like. I just think FOSS developers are poorly 
positioned to find out what users need.  (Indy OS X developers are in a 
similar position.  They are often single developers trying to make money 
selling at Apple's App Store.  Many don't have resources to support real 
user testing, either. So, they play it by ear, like FOSS.  Except they 
know down to the dollar how popular their products are.)

I also think it's almost impossible for an experienced developer to 
intuit what users expect from software.

The thing about designing software is that you just can't ask users what 
they want, or what they like.  They often say crazy things. You need to 
spend time with users observing, and asking questions about, the 
activities your software is supposed to support. It's the difference 
between this:  Ask a desert villager carrying a bucket of water back 
home what he'd like.  He's probably going to say, Make me a lighter 
bucket.  And this:  I see you need to walk two miles to find water.  Did 
you know we can run a pipe out there?