Complexity and user confusion (was: Red Hat's Bluecurve)

[Derek D. Martin]

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At some point hitherto, bscott at ntisys.com hath spake thusly:
>   First, I agree with you,.  Removing options just for the sake of
> dumbing-down the UI is, well, dumb.

The GNOME developers don't agree...

>   Second: The way to solve this problem (for the end-user) is with what I
> (and others) call "User Levels".  Basically, you tell the software what your
> experience level is, and it adjusts the UI accordingly.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, and has been suggested in several
threads on the GNOME usability list.  They're not interested...

>   I have seen user levels implemented in only two places: Once was the
> venerable GeoWorks (nee PC/GEOS) GUI for MS-DOS.  The other is in the
> "Nautilus" system browser.

If this ever did exist in Nautilus, it's been removed.  Actually
another place this existed is in the Sawfish WM.  It's apparently been
removed from there as well.

Incidentally, by default Sawfish isn't even installed on RH8
systems...

>   Lastly: Many corporations do, in fact, consider removing options
> to be an advantage.  Why?  It decreases training costs.

I wonder how true that is, in practice.  It makes a certain amount of
sense; but I suspect the reality is that the same amount of time (and
therefore money) is/would be spent on user training.  Why?  Ever been
in a corporate computer training class?  I have.  They only cover the
(extreme) basics anyway.  The extra options are, well, extra (and
therefore not covered).

One more point: corporations are not users.  They are abstract
entities.  Their employees are the users.  Unfortunately,
corporations' decisions about what to run or what is good has nothing
to do with what makes their employees (the users) happy (and in theory
more productive); only money does.  Corporations are the ones that
make software sales profitable, by and large, so the actual users of
the software suffer.

- -- 
Derek D. Martin
http://www.pizzashack.org/
GPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D

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