Livna Usability Assessment (Was: Re: cursed nvidia fedora my lack of knowledgeness)

[Christopher A. Williams]

On Sat, 2005-11-12 at 20:32 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-11-12 at 19:12, Christopher A. Williams wrote:
> 
> > This is a small part of the feedback the person giving the assessment
> > said to begin with. They also have much more they would change to make
> > the site useful.
> 
> Maybe he doesn't understand what the use of the site really is.
> Click the config link, run the rpm command you see there,
> install stuff.

...And if he doesn't understand the use of the site, how do expect the
average non-technical person to?

> 
> > In addition to making clear what the actual interfaces are, it should
> > (among other things) also make clear and easy how to:
> > 
> > * Get the tools required to use the repository
> 
> Everyone who would use it already has the tool.

Not necessarily true. Everyone will have Yum, but what about other tools
like Yum Extender? And even if everyone has Yum, do they know what it
does what to do with it before coming to this site? If they did,why is a
wiki being discussed as an addition?

My mother is a Fedora Core user as well. She uses Fedora because I
showed her how to do some things with it and she likes the speed,
stability and flexibility Fedora give even an average user. She couldn't
make heads or tails of the Livna site either. It was no help to her at
all - I had to step her through finding and setting up the repo using
the RPM. She waited patiently for a couple of days before I could get to
her to help.

> 
> > * Use these tools effectively to find the most popular things people
> > look for
> 
> There's nothing different about using the tool with this
> repository than the other ones they already use.

This may be the case, but the average non-technical user may not realize
it.


> > * Fix the most common problems people run into when using the tools
> 
> If the site knows how to fix the problems they'd fix it so
> you didn't have the problem in the first place, not tell you
> to do it yourself.

While I agree this is an ideal, it's not always feasible. Sometimes
things break and sometimes human intervention is necessary to fix them.

> > I'm sorry if someone called your baby ugly. This guy wasn't trying to
> > hurt anyone's feelings. He is a highly regarded expert in our company
> > with tons of Usability experience and an large portfolio of Websites he
> > has re-engineered with impressive results.
> 
> The website really isn't the point here.  If you are reading the
> website you aren't accomplishing much.

This is exactly the point. If you read the Website, it doesn't readily
give you the information needed to accomplish much. That's why we take
usability into consideration when we design things like Websites. We
want people reading them to be able to accomplish what the goal of the
site is.

It sounds like you're saying perhaps we should take the Website down
since reading the site for the average user doesn't accomplish much.
It's therefore a waste of time.

The Website should provide the information needed to use the repository
in a clear and concise way. For example, where you said earlier to just
click "Configuration" and install the rpm, why not have the link say
"How to enable the Livna repository on your system". You and I may know
that's Configuration, but we're both too technical to understand others
may not.

Heck, if you really want to keep the link as Configuration, then place
something prominently on the first page that says something like, "To
get started using the Livna repository, click 'Configuration', run the
command you see there, and then start installing stuff."

The key is deliver the right information in a timely manner and in the
right context to enable the end user to accomplish the goal.

Cheers,

Chris


-- 
======================
"Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."

-- Albert Einstein