Preferences dialog suggestions

[Matthew Vanecek]

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On Sat, 2002-10-19 at 20:34, Conrad Canterford wrote:
> On Sun, 2002-10-20 at 08:39, Chris Lyttle wrote:
--Bunch of important stuff snipped, which I really did read...
> - Preferences *should* be easily understood, and *should* default to the
> functionality that the majority of users are going to want. The majority
> of users should never need to touch the preferences.
> - Where a preference does nothing, it is confusing and should be
> removed.
> I think we agree on all those points.
>=20

Just my $.02 US worth.  I don't mess around with preferences too much,
except to turn on double-line mode globally.  To your point, however,
about defaulting functionality to that which the majority of users use,
that's a very good idea.  But the caveat is, you must know what the
majority of users want.  This means a usability study and feedback from
*users* (i.e., people not associated with the project but who use the
app, from new users to experienced users).  Funding for such a study
might, of course, be problematic.  If you could solicit feedback,
however, from either the user list, or on the Web site, and if someone
were willing to codify that feedback, you would have a pretty good idea
of what the typical user thinks and wants.  You could even set up some
use cases which the users would (hopefully) follow.  It's pretty useless
trying to have a meaningful discussion about a UI issue without that
feedback, unless the only targeted users are the ones in the discussion.

That's assuming such a thing hasn't already been done. But if you want
your app to be appealing to the masses, then such a study is critical.=20
And let's face it, free or for money, we all like our work to be
recognized and used....


--=20
Matthew Vanecek
perl -e 'print
$i=3Dpack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
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*****
For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
except me.
I'm always getting in the way of something...

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