Worthwhile critique from Mathew Thomas

[Mary Gardiner]

On Thu, Apr 14, 2005, Sean Wheller wrote:
> Mathew:          * ???Desktop???. This makes the unwarranted assumption that 
> people will consider the items in Gnome???s panels, for example, to be part of 
> the ???desktop???, rather than being above or below the desktop.

I think this is fair comment, but I don't know an alternative term.
"Workspace?" "Interface?" Ick.

>           * ???Applications???. This makes the unwarranted assumption that people 
> visiting the top-level help page ??? that is, people seeking help without 
> having started any particular program ??? will nevertheless know what 
> ???application??? they need to use for the thing they want to do.

True, but again, I don't know a better term. "Tasks"?

>           * ???Other Documentation???. ???Other??? is a slippery word: it works only 
> if the rest of the categories are already clear, and they???re not.

"Other" is the bane of all ontologies.

>           * ???Man Pages???. Teeheeheehee.

Should at least be "manual pages".

> Mathew:          * ???Hoary Release Notes???. Again, this is interesting 
> information, but it???s not help.
> 
> Sean: Not help to who? After an upgrade most people look for the Release Notes 
> to find help on what is new. Perhaps there is no need for it in Yelp? Perhaps 
> we should put it in System > Release Notes

I'm not sure who I agree with here. Perhaps naming it would be better.
"Upgrade information"? "Upgrade help"? In the ideal-est of all ideal
worlds, it would not show to anyone who had not actually upgraded their
system.

> 
> Mathew:          * ???Ubuntu Quick Guide???. This is a cool idea, but 
> unfortunately what???s provided is not a quick guide. A quick guide would be 
> one printable page, explaining (a) how to find programs, (b) how to find your 
> files, (c) how to turn off the computer, and (d) how to get more help. 
> Instead, the Ubuntu ???Quick Guide??? is dozens of pages long.
> 
> Sean: Fair enough. I challenge Mathew to please, in one printable page, 
> explain a-d. Perhaps, instead of calling it "Quick Guide" it should have been 
> "Quick Tour." Perhaps, since we have more people on the team now, we can 
> apply Methews model for the next version. I doubt it will be one page. In 
> general, I think we all agree with Mathew and Corey has pointed out some good 
> examples that we can use to base our ideas on.

The "one printable page" challenge might be well enough done with
pictures.

>       A real help system would have items on its front page like ???Connecting 
> to the Internet???, ???Using files from Windows???, ???Printing???, ???Chatting online???, 
> ???Playing music???, ???Making CDs and DVDs???, and ???Troubleshooting???.
> 
> Sean: Mathew assumes that all users are of his psychographic profile and level 
> of computer proficiency. In an ideal world help systems would be based on 
> User Groups. So if you are an administrator you would get 'administrative 
> topics' and if you are a user you will get 'user topics.' Unfortunately the 
> help systems today are just not that advanced. So we need to provide context 
> to our help topics.

His profile is probably close for the type of user who would be visiting
the help system first thing without starting any programs. One click
access to different user profiles might be an interim solution, with
this as the default.

Or alternatively, more actual user testing.

-Mary