A really good article on software usability

[David G. Miller]

"Mikkel L. Ellertson" <mikkel at infinity-ltd.com> wrote:

> David G. Miller wrote:
>> > Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > 
>>     
>>> >>   Where's the Linux software that matches this
>>> >> ease of use?  Or that even lets me set up something once by picking
>>> >> from a few selections, then never asks again?
>>>       
>> > A glaring example of this is the Thunderbird prompt as to whether images
>> > should be displayed.  A "learn" function (e.g., "Always display e-mail
>> > images from this sender?") would be wonderful.  Instead, everyday I have
>> > to click "Display images" in order to read my "Daily Dilbert" as well as
>> > several other e-mails.
>> > 
>> > There are other examples but this is a case where the developers
>> > blatantly ignore how most people use a particular program.
>> > 
>>     
> A quick fix for this is to put the sender in your address book, and
> then enable "Allow remote images if the sender is in my Personal
> Address Book" in
> Preferences --> Privacy --> General. (The same tab that has the
> check box to block loading of remote images.)
>
> Mikkel
Thanks for the tip.  While that will work, somehow I don't think of 
editing my personal address book when it comes to allowing images from a 
particular sender.  That an obscure way to allow something like this 
exists goes a long way to the point of the original article: Linux apps 
could be a lot more user friendly (admittedly, the author of the article 
could have come up with better examples).

The one way commercial applications could successfully compete against 
open source would be to focus on usability.  I don't see any way for the 
open source community to do something like the ease of use analysis that 
went into a product like the DOS version of WordPerfect.  Luckily for 
open source, Microsoft and their ilk would rather continue to bloat 
their products with features that appeal to smaller and smaller market 
niches.  Commercial vendors also have an incentive to keep their 
products bloated and hard to use since they make money from training and 
support plus ease of use is subjective while a feature list is something 
that can be easily advertised.

Cheers,
Dave

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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
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