Il giorno mer, 23-02-2005 alle 11:24 -0800, Brad Fuller ha scritto:
> Giovanni Corriga wrote:
> 
> >Hi everyone,
> >
> >One of the areas where Squeak is currently lacking is Usability. Both
> >the language and the environment can offer amazing possibilities in term
> >of productivity, ease of use, tinkering, discovering and learning. But
> >my feeling is that a large part of this potential is hindered and
> >blocked by inconsistant tools, more-complex-than-necessary interfaces,
> >conflicting metaphors.
> >
> >So, as a mean to solve some of Squeak's usability problems, I propose
> >the creation of a Usability Team.
> >
> >The Usability Team should:
> >
> >- analyze the usability of the current Squeak releases, identifying the
> >usability problems and proposing solutions for that problems either as
> >fixes or as suggestions.
> >- as a byproduct of the analysis and solving process, create some Squeak
> >Interface Guidelines which would help the Squeak developers create
> >better tools.
> >- work in close contact with the other teams and the Squeak developers'
> >community.
> >
> >Please note that this is not (yet) a formal team proposal. It is more
> >than a call for everyone who is interested in this topic to come out and
> >join this project.
> >I can act as an interim team leader while the team is forming, but I
> >have no problem in stepping down if someone else wants the job.
> >
> >So, if you are interested in this topic, and want to give your two
> >cents, please reply to this message. As soon as I have feedback from at
> >least a couple of person, I'll ask the coordinators to create a
> >usability mailing list, so that we can start draft a formal team
> >proposal.
> >
> >	Giovanni
> >
> I think that this is a good idea for the environment ('course, gotta 
> explain the details of what "environment" encompasses.) What do you mean 
> about the usability of the language? Do you mean Smalltalk? Or human 
> language? UI?

By "environment" I mean everything which gets shown on the user's
screen: from browsers to windows to flaps to the eToys tools.

> You mentioned conflicting metaphors in your post. Can you give examples?

Well, as an example, the eToys use extensively the drag'n'drop features,
while the devel tools don't use drag'n'drop.

> 
> Interface Guidelines would be helpful indeed, as long as they are worded 
> as recommendations and not "Thou Must ..." How about code snippets on 
> how recommendations are implemented.

Sure, that's a good idea. But maybe some of the snippets could be
integrated in the UI framework, instead of being reported in the IG.

> 
> Great idea to look at usability of the current state of Squeak. For 
> instance,  from a user perspective, "projects" are integrated into the 
> environment. How has that been received by users? How well does it 
> really work for users? What are alternatives?

Projects issues is actually one of the examples i thought up when
thinking of Squeak's usability. I don't usually use projects, preferring
clean images for every application I write: a single-purpose image. But
for something geared towards eToys, or for multi-purpose images, project
can be a good tool.

	Giovanni