The Open-HCI project launches [LWN.net]

The announcement went out on the last day of January: members of the GNOME and KDE projects have gotten together to improve cooperation between the two with regard to human interface guidelines. For the (many) users who have wanted to see a higher degree of cooperation between KDE and GNOME, this move can only be seen as a step in the right direction.

At the beginning, of course, it is a pretty small step. Both desktop projects maintain a set of usability guidelines which promote consistency and good human factors in desktop applications. The plan is to merge the two sets into a single document. Initially, each project's guidelines will remain in a separate section. Over time, the plan is to find areas which can be merged into shared sections, common to both desktops. The possibility exists that a single set of guidelines could eventually emerge. That is a distant hope, however; for now, the Open-HCI workers are more concerned with details like what format will be used for the combined document.

It would be hard to overestimate the value of a high-quality, shared usability document. Usability work is hard, tedious, and unglorious; it is also a crucial part of the development of end-user applications that actually work. It is exactly the sort of work that free software projects are not supposed to be good at - though much of the work already done within GNOME and KDE puts the lie to that claim. Making it easier for both projects to benefit from the usability work that is being done can only lead to better desktop applications in the future.

Shared usability guidelines should also lead to more consistent behavior between the two desktops. The competition between KDE and GNOME has been a good thing for both projects, and for the Linux desktop as a whole. But there is no need for the two to be separate islands. More consistent behavior will make it easier for users to pick and choose applications from both projects, allowing them to take advantage of the best of each. And that, too, should be good for the Linux desktop.

(See also: usability guidelines for KDE and GNOME; there is also a mailing list for the Open-HCI project).

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The Open-HCI project launches

Posted Feb 6, 2003 5:01 UTC (Thu) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

I'd be interested if a number of groups got together to produce a
document explaining what makes a program usable. Obviously one factor is
consistency with other programs the user uses, but that is only one
factor, and does not apply to the overall design of programs (it's no
good if all of your software is broken in the same way). It seems to me
that the real value in collaboration between KDE and Gnome people would
be in being able to share information on what widget behaviours are easy
for new users to learn and what widget behaviours lead to efficient
interaction, rather than just how each project does things.

The Open-HCI project launches

Posted Feb 6, 2003 14:53 UTC (Thu) by X-Nc (guest, #1661) [Link]

> what makes a program usable

Apple has published a great book on this (though I can't remember exactlly what the title is). A quick search on B&N gives a a number of books.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?TTL=human+interface&userid=6UPNK8COQL

The Open-HCI project launches

Posted Feb 6, 2003 5:32 UTC (Thu) by cpeterso (guest, #305) [Link]

For a deeper perspective on software usability, I highly recommend Alan Cooper's book "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design". Yes, the examples are very Windows centric, but I think the usability guidelines and insights can be applied to any system.

I am glad that the open source community is taking usability (for non-geeks) more seriously. Many open source projects are chided for copying commercial products and lacking innovation. With GNOME and KDE creating new usability guidelines, this is one time when I wish they would innovate less and copy more from the excellent and time-tested Macintosh usability guides.

Compliance

Posted Feb 6, 2003 5:59 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]

Reconciling the guidelines is a good start.

Perhaps the project can spin off an auditing project to rate how well the various programs conform to the guidelines, and (more importantly) keep a scoreboard/checklist of specific known violations in current releases of KDE and Gnome programs.

The exhortations in both lists of guidelines to eschew "yes" and "no" button labels in dialog boxes -- each advises putting active verbs on the buttons -- is widely ignored, even in flagship programs like Evolution and Gnumeric. (I don't know how well KDE programs comply.) A violations pillory might be just what it takes to give the guidelines teeth, and also to keep the guidelines tuned to real-world relevance.

Compliance of central applications

Posted Feb 9, 2003 1:18 UTC (Sun) by xkahn (subscriber, #1575) [Link]

Well, to be fair Evolution and Gnumeric were both designed and written before the HIG was written. It would be difficult to follow guidlines which don't exist yet, and it's unfair to judge an application to a standard which post-dates it.

Of course, both projects are being ported to GNOME 2 (GNOME 2.2 rather) and I have every confidence that they will adapt most, if not all, of the HIG.

(Note: Yes, I work for Ximian. No, I haven't tried Evolution 1.3 yet. Why? Well, I just got it installed yesterday...)