[362] in Athena User Interface
Re: Minutes, 8/9 AUI Usability meeting
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Janet Littell)
Mon Aug 14 11:37:48 2000
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Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 11:37:45 -0400
To: Richard Tibbetts <tibbetts@mit.edu>
From: Janet Littell <jlittell@MIT.EDU>
Cc: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@mit.edu>, kcahill@mit.edu, sbjones@mit.edu,
aui@mit.edu, 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.
How about dividing beta testing into two parts explicitly, system testing
and usability testing?
Janet
