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Re: dselect survey



On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 12:13:29 +0100, Florent Rougon <f.rougon@free.fr> wrote:

> I'm just trying to understand
> people who bash dselect on the first occasion. If you don't like dselect
> and don't fall in one of the cases I have mentioned, then we have a
> problem. Simply preferring aptitude is *not* a valid reason to say
> dselect is ugly, difficult to use, <insert typical dselect bashing crap
> here>.

Question: does awkward, non-intuitive user interface for a text-based
utility constitute a "problem"? I don't care for dselect primarily
because, for whatever reason, the user interface constantly rubs me
the wrong way. Although I have read the documentation, I almost always
remember it wrongly, hit the wrong keys, etc. etc. After working with
it for half an hour or so, I regain my proficiency... but after 6
months of not using it all that minutia is lost to my active memory,
and -- once again -- my intuition about how a text-based application
SHOULD work fails me.

Do I consider this a problem? Not particularly. It is my problem, as
much as anyone's. This is a sophisticated sysadmin tool, and I am only
an occasional sysadmin, by no means sophisticated.

>
> (f) bash dselect 'cause someone else said it was crap
>

However, if you believe that user interface is important, it might
behoove you to listen to your users: people don't usually grow to
"hate" a system administration utility simply because it's the hip
thing to do. Of course there may be some unreasonable, or even
plain-stupid users: but if you believe that user interface is
important, you even have to think about how to make *them* happy. An
owner, interested in user interface, might take it upon him- or
herself to start a thread asking for interface suggestions, in a place
where users congregate. Ask questions like: "What text-based
applications do you consider to be examples of good design?" Focus on
the distinction between navigation and data-altering events. Consider
on-screen cheatsheets that advanced users can disable. Ensure that
there are sufficient and obvious undo paths with multiple roll-back
points.

I am a software developer too -- I know the temptation to mock users
who just don't get it when "it" is perfectly obvious. (I recently
rolled out some web software in which a table interface had graphical
links: up and down arrows at the top of each column, right below the
column label. The number one complaint was: "This is useless. There's
no way to sort!" Are my users dumb as dirt? Apparently they are. Is it
their problem? No, it's mine.)

Anyway, something to think about. 

-bluejack

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