[TYPO3-hci] Open Source usability sucks?

[Erik Svendsen]

Hello Christopher,

> Hello again,

>> But at this moment I feel a discussion about labels (details), more
>> and
>> less counterproductive. There are many reasons for it.
>> First: What labels TYPO3 has in english, doesn't botter me at all as
>> long as they are understandable. All my clients (users) are using
>> translated labels.
>> Second: To me the logical structure of the backend (how it can fit
>> with
>> the typical users workflow), much more important at this moment. Then
>> it's the time to look into details as labels, best icons and so on.
> So we miss each other's points ;-) The details here are, I think,
> /very/ useful as concrete examples of where the process has, in the
> past, strayed from the ideal. The logical structure is of the BE and
> users' workflow are /exactly/ what I'm getting at with the TV Page
> examples--they show that one of two things has happened:
> 
> either a) the typical workflow has been misunderstood to some extent
> during development, or b) though the users' requirements were
> understood, the end product failed in some respects to meet users'
> actual needs.
> 
> -Christopher

Misunderstood workflow could be said about lots of parts of TYPO3 (and most 
other software).

And I don't think we miss each others points. But I think our thoughts about 
hove to make improvement maybe are different (and maybe not). My reason to 
say that discussing details are counterproductive are that focus on details, 
and improvement of details don't make any really change (or only small ones). 
To really do something with usability, you have to start with more and less 
clean sheets, sketch your view (many peoples views) of what usability are. 
Then try to implement as much as possible of it.

WBR,
Erik Svendsen
www.linnearad.no