[209] in Athena User Interface
Re: Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Cattey)
Wed Jun 21 12:00:43 2000
Message-ID: <8tICOZ0GgE6e0FeZ00@mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 12:00:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
To: aui@MIT.EDU, "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <200006210817.EAA12255@No-Whammies.mit.edu>
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDs Christopher
Beland@MIT.E (3412)
> - Only windows started from the Gnome Panel will reappear on next
> login if you click on "save this setup" in the logout dialog.
> This is a serious user confusion issue.
THAT explains some very confusing behavior I've always seen.
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDs Christopher
Beland@MIT.E (3412)
> More importantly, is
> has a "don't show this dialog again" button which is easily clicked.
> I think this should be removed, so that the only way not to get the
> MOTD is to hack your dotfiles rather extensively.
Agreed.
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDs Christopher
Beland@MIT.E (3412)
> The Discovery documents also mention startup "hints of the day" or
> somesuch, which Gnome has existing support for.
> I don't think we should use them. I think they are very cheesy, and
> they annoy me whenever I see a program that uses them.
Agreed.
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDs Christopher
Beland@MIT.E (3412)
> I think a much better solution would be to start up the Gnome help
> browser, set to an appropriate Athena-specific intro page, the first
> time (ever) a person uses Gnome-Athena. They can then turn off this
> feature whenever they've finished reading the intro documentation and
> feel comfortable enough with the GUI to find standard online help
> later if they need it. Writing this documentation properly and
> concisely is critical, and should be a required part of our first
> public release.
Agreed.
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Re: Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDsThomas
Bushnell, BSG@MIT (4711)
> Does this mean you want a way to say "remember these windows the next
> time I log in, but only that once", and distinguish this from
> "remember these windows as part of my normal setup"?
> I agree that this might be a useful feature.
Agreed.
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Re: Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDsThomas
Bushnell, BSG@MIT (1091)
> > (About 80% of Athena users who responded to recent surveys report that
> > they are comfortable/familiar with the Windows interface.)
> This is true, and utterly irrelevant for almost any question.
I disagree.
Excerpts from mail: 21-Jun-100 Re: Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDsThomas
Bushnell, BSG@MIT (316)
> > (About 80% of Athena users who responded to recent surveys report that
> > they are comfortable/familiar with the Windows interface.)
> And for fun with statistics, the 15.279 survey reported that 69% of
> users thought the Athena UI should *not* look like Windows.
Oh. Um. Ur. Uh...
My thinking is: We should take note of these sound-byte statistics, and
try and do a good job addressing people's perception of what is good.
Ultimately statistics are carefully chosen justifications that leave out
facts then enable people to support their theory. We need to try and
"strive to find the truth", rather than to "support a belief".
-wdc
