[213] in Athena User Interface
Re: Session mgmt, MOTDs, HOTDs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher D. Beland)
Wed Jun 21 12:46:10 2000
Message-Id: <200006211645.MAA25618@w20-575-42.mit.edu>
To: aui@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: The events that comprise the history of the universe.
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 12:45:58 -0400
From: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
Regarding statistics:
The most meaningless kind are those quoted out of context, which I
seem to have picked up a habit of doing lately.
My only real purpose is to provide some sort of concrete justification
for giving equal emphasis to accomodating users with little or no
computer experience, Windows experience, and Unix/Athena experience,
and to some lesser degree, Mac experience. This is reflected in
my recommendations for usability testing subjects.
I've spent a lot of time being skeptical about the stats that came
back, and a lot more time trying to explain them based on
non-statistical data and experience. I've been dropping numbers
because some people like to grab on to them and feel good about
believing in them. I've avoided quoting numbers that I think are
skewed badly by compounding factors, and have been sharing numbers
which, while not terribily accurate, do represent quanititative
truths.
However, if you don't believe in statistics, that's fine. All I'm
really trying to argue is that I'm pretty darn certain that novice
users, Windows likers, and Unix likers, people who don't want
customizations, people who do want customizations but don't make them,
and people who edit their dotfiles are all significant chucks of the
Athena user community. None of them represent tiny minorities that
can be safely ignored by the project (except people who have their own
.xsessions). I'm also pretty darn certain that the Mac likers
represent a signficantly smaller community than the other platforms,
but it is still non-negligible.
I would also say that we (myself very much included) generally prefer
Doing the Right Thing over Doing What Windows Does*, but that where
the Right Thing is not endangered, we like to provide backwards
compatibility for people transitioning from other platforms, taking
into account their relative abundances. However, sometimes it's
informative to look at what other platforms do, and point out the
parts that we think or know people like unto themselves.
As long as no one actually disagrees about these fundamentals, then I
guess I have no need to depend on the numbers to justify myself.
-B.
