[361] in Athena User Interface
Re: Minutes, 8/9 AUI Usability meeting
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Tibbetts)
Mon Aug 14 11:20:11 2000
Message-Id: <200008141520.LAA00232@hikari-no-ken.mit.edu>
To: Janet Littell <jlittell@MIT.EDU>
cc: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>, kcahill@MIT.EDU, sbjones@MIT.EDU,
aui@MIT.EDU, tibbetts@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 14 Aug 2000 11:00:32 EDT."
<v04020a08b5bdb025cb4a@[18.152.0.213]>
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 11:20:08 -0400
From: Richard Tibbetts <tibbetts@MIT.EDU>
On 8/14 you wrote:
> These notes are very helpful.
>
> One question:
> Re the decision to exclude the graphical file manager and renaming and
> deleting files
> from testing: Is there any other point-and-click way for testers to
> manage files with
> Gnome, or do they have to use the Athena command line? Will a file manager
> be
> included, and if so, how does it fit into the development timeline?
A filemanager will be included. It is called Nautilus and is scheduled
for release in November (at the same time as the Evolution mail
client).
> Other comments:
> - As I understand WebMoira, it is a list and access management system.
> Interacting
> with it seems like a more advanced user task. Should it be included in a
> second phase
> of testing?
I believe that student usage patterns on Athena very often include
"Add yourself to the Senior House mailing list" and similar tasks very
early on. Currently this is handled by upperclassmen giving freshman
verbatim commands to type at the Athena prompt ("blanche senior-house
-a $USER"). Many students then don't know how to remove themselves
from these lists or otherwise modify their subscriptions. So it would
be good if we could offer then a consistent way to manage their
subscriptions that was evident and understandable from the very
beginning.
> - In the proposed schedule with dates, where beta testing appears, could
> usability testing also be included? Ideally beta/system testing occurs befo
> re
> usability testing, but they can go on in parallel if necessary.
This confuses me. What are the goals of usability testing that occurs
after system testing? That is, after a product has been beta tested,
it is no longer advisable to make fundamental changes which might be
suggested by usability testing.
tibbetts
-*- http://www.mit.edu/~tibbetts -*- finger tibbetts@monk.mit.edu -*-
