[685] in Athena User Interface
Re: aui and I hope you're feeling better
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Cattey)
Tue Feb 27 12:51:05 2001
Message-ID: <ouayY4Zz00014JrZtR@mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 17:51:00 +0000 ()
From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
To: sbjones@MIT.EDU
CC: aui@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <v04020a01b6c162a54f2b@[18.152.1.82]>
Susan:
Thanks for sending me the raw data. Now I see how I had been
confused by the presentation at:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/icons/auicons.html
1. In the section titled "Results (continued)" I was grouping the count
of yes/no with the first line of replies to the question, "What do you
think it means." I know there were no lines to say I should do that,
and in fact, now that I'm understanding how I should interpret the
groupings, I don't know how I got it into my head that I should have
grouped things as I did.
2. In the section titled "Results" I concluded that because people
did not see a red X with the picture of a terminal, they did not recognize
the icon as a terminal emulator. But in reviewing the source data, it
seems instead that there were a mix of opinions about which icons
were preferred, with one person saying the red X seemed to imply a
kill operation, and others saying they liked the icon with the red X, and
a surprising number of people choosing #5, the perspective monitor
as meaningful.
3. With the groupings of icons in subsections, I kept trying to associate
comments with the icon that was at the corresponding position vertically.
(Perhaps this is where I got the mis-interpretation I report in #1 above.)
----
I think I have a suggestion how to reformat the page to more directly
say what needs to be said:
Take what is in "Results" and "Results (continued) and organize them
into two different major sections:
Section title: "Test 1"
Introductory text: "We presented the sheet with the first task bar to
six different people with a variety of Athena experience, from none to a
lot. Here is what they said they saw".
Table: The contents of "Results (continued)" with only the icons showed
on the first test page. I.E. only the X term icon with the red X, and only
the "Out" logout icon.
Section title: "Test 2"
Introductory text: "We then showed the other four task bars and asked
them to speak specifically about the XTerm and Logout icons.
Table: two columns Icon, comments.
With each icon show the comments, like, "liked the red-x and if not that
#5", and "sending e-mail or something to the printer?"
Put each icon in a separately delineated row with one or more comments
in the row directly associated with each icon.
----
Now I see that I mis-interpreted the conclusions at the bottom of the page,
and have been advocating an approach to the Prompt icon that is NOT what
the usability testing suggested.
Sigh.
-wdc
