Default Desktop Experience for 11.04 - User testing results

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Rick Spencer wrote on 15/04/11 15:08:
>
> First, thanks Usability Team! I know how much work goes into planning
> and running a study like this, and how much agony is involved in
> interpreting and writing up the results. It's clear that there are some
> areas for improvement in 11.10, and these results will be instrumental
> in helping to guide those investments.

Charline did all the planning and test moderation. I was just the
stenographer afterwards.

Later on, Charline will publish a full report on the test. I just wanted
to post a quick summary in time to be helpful for the default experience
discussion.

> On Thu, 2011-04-14 at 22:48 -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 03:00:31AM +0100, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>>>
>>> *   8/10 people could find a window's menus, but 7/8 of them learned to
>>> *   Only 4/11 worked out how to change the background picture.
>>> *   6/10 could easily find and launch a game that wasn't in the
>>> *   Only 1/9 (P4) easily added that game to the launcher.
>>> *   9/11 people could easily close a window.
>>> *   8/9 easily copied text from one document into another.
>>> *   Only 5/10 could easily delete a document
>>
>> These seven items in particular seem like really basic tasks that
>> ought to be testing at >90%, so these stats seem a lot lower than I'd
>> expect.

> Well, think back to the last time you got a new device. For example, if
> you have an Android phone. You are probably pretty facile with the
> interface now, but if someone handed it to you and said "do this task
> with it" you may have struggled to some basic things, like launching
> apps. A lot of the fun for users in getting a new devices is learning
> how to use it.

I didn't have anything close to that kind of trouble when trying out an
Android phone. (Though like anyone on a developer mailing list, I'm not
a representative sample.)

>...
> For brand new users? Some of the tasks aren't relevant.

Which ones?

>...
>> Also, these tests measure usability, but not their overall impression.
>> Did they like it?  Find it frustrating/confusing?
>
> This is actually a very important question. For me, when I go back to
> Classic, it feels very old and mundane. Many theories hold that the
> aesthetics trump usability, or at least strongly influence the
> perception of the usability of a system. In other words, given 2
> identically design systems that only differ in terms of theming, for
> example, users will rate the system with the more pleasing design to be
> more "usable" and are more likely to start using it. 
>...

This is the aesthetic usability effect.
<http://usabilityfriction.com/2010/03/30/aesthetic-usability-effect/>
<http://jnd.org/dn.mss/emotion_design_attractive_things_work_better.html>

- -- 
mpt
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk2oxq0ACgkQ6PUxNfU6ecoIcACcCcdaRX0LStM999wHOWz+q/GU
4YEAn05ZbWUmv1dPOkBJzHvpYb8eSaXg
=I/jZ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----