Linked by Amjith Ramanujam on Mon 4th Aug 2008 14:35 UTC, submitted by Hakime
"The best open source applications and operating systems are more usable now than they were then. But this is largely from slow incremental improvements, and low-level competition between projects and distributors. Major problems with the design process itself remain largely unfixed." Personal Note: I am not sure how many people feel that Free Software has poor usability. As far as the desktop environment, I find most of linux window managers to be the more user-friendly than Windows and OS X.
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Member since:2005-07-06
the learning curve will always be there, its just that so many people are now exposed to the windows or mac way, that if one bump into something that quacks like a duck but dont move like a duck, they freak.
i would have tought that we humans had learned that the only constant is change by now...
RE[2]: Sad, but true...
by TemporalBeing on Mon 4th Aug 2008 17:34
in reply to "RE: Sad, but true..."
Member since:2007-08-22
the learning curve will always be there, its just that so many people are now exposed to the windows or mac way, that if one bump into something that quacks like a duck but dont move like a duck, they freak.
It's not simply a "window or mac way" of doing things. There's a very general way of doing things, of which both Mac, Windows, KDE, and GNOME (GNOME HID) all subscribe.
But then, compare the usability of GIMP to that of Photoshop, or even MS Paint. Or MS Office 6.0 to '97 to 2000 to XP to 2007 to OO.org 1.0 to 1.1 to 2.0 to the upcoming 3.0. There's major differences in usability to them. While OO.org is generally close enough to MS Office that most MS Office users can find their way around OO.org; GIMP is no where near the level of usability that Photoshop has; and I'd even say that MS Paint has a higher usability level than GIMP.
It all comes down to how simple the interface is to use. I've tried GIMP from time to time, but (even as a developer) I do not find it in any way intuitive about its interface (which has at least historically sucked). Yet I could pick up Photoshop 5.5 (probably even newer versions) and without reading through a manual, find the few things I want to do and do them.
Yes, there is always a learning curve. But you want that learning curve to be as low as possible for your entry-level audience (whoever that may be!). If you're not targeting anyone but the most advanced of users, then your learning curve is going to be a lot higher - and should be - but even then it has to meet what that group will find acceptable; however, very very few programs will target that level of audience and target the "newbie" or "just past newbie" stage users; thereby the need a very low learning curve for their basic level tasks.
For example, Subversion (SVN) has a pretty good usability. Their basic level tasks are very easy and typically intuitive. However, there are some tasks that are very advanced (e.g. Hook Scripts) which require a more advanced user, and are designed for just that. At the same time, SVN is also a prime example of bad usability for the 'tag' task; the 'tag' is defined as a "read-only branch" in SVN, but the system does not natively make them "read-only" or present any easy option to do so - rather, you have to go to the advanced task of creating a hook-script that will do so for you. SVN could easily improve its usability by adding a parameter for branching that would enable the new branch to be set by the system as read-only; or even creating a new function called 'tag' that did just that.
There's many ways to skin a cat, but there's typically only a few ways that can be taught to someone that does not skin cats for a living, nor has the time to get their Phd on cat skinning to skin the few dozen in the back room.
Again, apply the principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS).
Member since:
2007-08-22
Mostly the high-profile projects get people on them that, if the project is willing to listen, help improve the usability. Sadly though, some projects just are not willing to listen - GIMP has had this issue for years and only recently started to entertain the idea of changing the interface to make it more usable.
Why? Most F/OSS projects are written by developers, typically for developers. The interface is designed with that in mind usually, and will more often than not satisfy a developer's use, but be very unfriendly to a non-developer - the average computer user.
So the developers think it is "good enough" since it meets their needs; but the average user thinks it is a piece of junk since they can't use it without going through a huge learning curve. Those that do, like it b/c the realize the "power" that is available. Unfortunately, it just isn't something that is ever going to go main stream b/c most are not going to be willing (nor should they have to) to go through that kind of learning curve.
There really is magic in the 'KISS' principle - something that developer driven interfaces tend not to do.
But then, I guess it comes down to who is your audience. If you think your audience is only you, or people that agree with you on the interface, then okay, guess there's nothing to change. But if you really want your project to take off, to be accepted by the average user, then you typically will have a long way to go.
Hopefully more F/OSS software will go towards targeting the typical user than only like-minded people. It would really improve the whole "Desktop" viability thing too.