[TYPO3-hci] new skin

[JoH]

>> Yes, I have seen it. Even seen it in action in one of Kasper'S
>> podcasts. It's cool, it's fancy, it's - well - let's call it
>> colorful, but I don't think that it will improve overall usability.
>> It seems that many people are mistaking a modern look and fancy JS
>> dropdowns for improved usability but in fact it's just the contrary.
>
> Many people "think" here, why not make a small usability test
> with the different skins?
>
> It would be fun to do, mostly because _my believe_ is that the
> look is much more important than some people might think...
>
> A clear, well designed icon or a well thought out text can make
> a huge differens. For example using the phrase "Page properties"
> instead of "Page Header"...

Agreed.
But what I wanted to say is:
A modern look does not necessarily mean better usability.

>> Some of you might be old enough to remember the good old times where
>> we had things like Word Perfect for DOS.
>> I guess most of you would not say that WP had got a modern look, but
>> it's still one of the best interfaces I have ever worked with, even
>> though it had no GUI at all.
>> No clicking, no dragging and dropping, just a set of Keyboard
>> Shortcuts that were easy to learn even for the non experienced
>> secretary.
>
> Did you ever talk to any secretary? I did and she did not like
> it at all - she could never learn the damn codes/shortcuts and
> was very glad when they disappeard (in WP6.0 i guess?).

Well - I definitetly had to talk to those secretaries since I was the one
teaching them how to use it ;-)
Most of them have been able to type at very high speed and they really found
it annoying that they had to move their hands away from the keyboard to do
something with the mouse.
This is why they still used the "oldschool" DOS version when Winword started
to become popular.

> (My little theory is that technicians, programmers and people
> like that prefer that type of interface (I like to have that
> control of things), but most of the other people out there
> don´t. I think that's the simple reason why Windows is so
> popular - it hides all the "technical stuff".)

And this is why I would prefer a shortcut system for the advanced user.
Since there are many admins and developers outthere who don't like to waste
time with dragging and klicking.

> Key presses are not the issue - few and logical keys are! The
> same goes for icons - too many icons is not good either. But if
> you have the same amount of keys and icons, most people prefer
> to use icons (not in fast shooting games of course, but in most
> other programs).
>
> I always get surprised when I realise that most people I help
> using Word don´t even know that Ctrl+S saves a document... They
> push the Save-icon!
>
> What you show here has nothing to do with usability, it only
> shows that pressing keys is a faster way to work than using
> mouse clicks. No one doubts that.
> But what happens if you have tens or hundreds of key shortcuts.
> Wouldn´t it be better to use icons/menues then?

Definitely not!
Did you ever watch some Photoshop, Freehand or CorelDraw wizard taking the
use of shortcuts to the max?
There are at least tens if not hundreds of shortcuts and the more they use
them the faster they will be able to create the design they wanted.
This will free up precious time that you can use for more creative thinking
or an additional coffee break.
The things you are describing just show that
a) many people are too lazy to learn the shortcuts and don't even try to
remember them
b) many coaches are afraid of teaching their clients things they don't like
today but might love tomorrow
c) many accounting departments don't even know about this enormous waste of
manpower taking place in their company just because people are too lazy

IMHO Usability is not just about giving people things they are used to.
It's about showing people an easy way to do things better and/or faster.

>> So please kick these DHTML menus and introduce something that will
>> really improve usability: Shortcuts
>
> We could/should have both!
> Nice icons and well structured menues are not contradictions,
> instead they complete each other!

Agreed.
So let's have both but in a configurable way. Just like in Photoshop, where
you can still use tons of icons, menus, panels and toolboxes, while having
lots of useful shortcuts.

Joey

-- 
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