Content Consumer has a usability review up of the latest Ubuntu 8.04 release, Hardy Heron. Using twelve tasks, ranging from the everyday to the less common, the review points out several of the problems Linux still has with reaching the mainstream computer user.
The author makes an excellent point about the trouble Linux runs into when attempting to make inroads onto the desktop:
The main issue with the desktop experience is that the geeky programmers and designers assume too much from the average user.
You can read the review here: The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment.
Posted in Miscellaneous
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Tagged gentoo, linux
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MacUser has an amusing post up about the Apple Ergonomics page, which appears to have not been updated for some time. The items here are still as true today as they were back then (whenever “then” was), but you’d think some of those pictures could be updated with by one of those many graphics people over there.
An interesting review, despite the dated pictures. Check it out.
As I work some of the administrative aspects of this site, along with working up a queue of past items I want to post about, I kept trying to figure out what to do about one category in particular. How do I express it the way I really want?
The dreaded Operator Error!
My dilemma is simple: Operator Error is a myth. It’s an excuse used by others when the real problem can’t be found, in which case it is easiest just to point at the operator and blame it on them. Operators certainly make mistakes and sure, no matter how well designed the system is, they’re going to make errors sometimes too. Brain farts happen. But it is all too common for the excuse to be used as a means to place blame where it is generally not due, which really was the part I was shooting for.
After much thought I’m left with simply “Operator Error”, the anti-category. It’s a good bet that a post labeled with the category is more an example of system failure then operator error, but the powers that be just ended up blaming the little guy anyway.
Not to get things off to a particularly serious start… all things in the corporate world seem to come back to Dilbert these days, so why not just get things started off that way.
This is a series of comics I picked up several years ago.
I posted it outside the door to my office when at The Ohio State University, in the Industrial, Welding & Systems Engineering building, but it disappeared shortly there after. Perhaps an Engineer who took it a little too personally… the truth hurts sometimes!
I’ve had the comic posted at my desk since starting my current job. Most people who take the time to read it chuckle. Most seem to get the point, but it is not uncommon for someone to completely miss the point.
This comic, at least the first two in the series, has shown itself to truly represent the state of the industry on multiple occasions. Interfaces “thrown” together by software developers will often get the job done, when you know what to do and what to look for in the first place, but quickly hit the fan when the target audience sits down with the interface for the first time.
I am a firm believer that it is important to both make a user interface usable as well as attractive. It comes down to the human condition — if two things will allow us to accomplish the same goals we will tend to pick the one that is better looking. People will often go out of there way to pick the more attractive option, even if it is less usable!
If the user interface is made both usable and attractive, fewer people will need to get their beauty elsewhere (be it from the garbage man, or some other source).
Welcome to Except on Tuesdays. A blog about usability, user-centered design and human-systems integration.
I’ve been wanting to set up this blog for some time now, having been delayed in it’s launch for some time for various reasons. Thankfully I’m finally getting around to settings things up and moving things forward!
I am currently working on several posts that I’ve backlogged in my head as wanting to post here and comment on. I’m hoping to be able to post something at least several times a week, as I’m sure there is plenty out there in the world of usability to be commented on. If I manage to keep my schedule it means that I’m finding this information and (hopefully) learning from it myself.
In the off chance that people find this blog, among the sea of everything else out there, early and find it interesting I certainly encourage comments! This blog is as much an opportunity for me to comment on usability topics as it is a chance for me to learn and develop through the input of others!
Welcome once again!
