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Seeking Enlightenment (The H)

Seeking Enlightenment (The H)

Posted Nov 6, 2012 20:54 UTC (Tue) by bojan (subscriber, #14302)
In reply to: Seeking Enlightenment (The H) by ovitters
Parent article: Seeking Enlightenment (The H)

> I did not say it was nonsense. I said it is not objective.

Wow! If it is subjective, it is automatically nonsense. Otherwise, why should anyone follow design guidelines that someone found nice for himself only?

> You can define e.g. 10pt and measure such a rule objectively, but rule itself ("10pt") was still based on something subjective.

Surely, you have to be kidding. You obviously do not think that it is possible to measure at which font size majority of people can easily read the text, at which size majority of people can comfortably hit a button with their finger etc.

> Note that GNOME is not very usable on a tablet. I suggest trying it before suggesting that it is a tablet interface.

I did not claim Gnome was usable on a tablet. Only that Gnome developers insist on making my desktop behave like a tablet/phone. Which is unnecessary, because my desktop is neither of those.

PS. You have just reduced decades of usability research to nothing more than someone's whim.


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Seeking Enlightenment (The H)

Posted Nov 6, 2012 22:18 UTC (Tue) by ovitters (subscriber, #27950) [Link]

Wow! If it is subjective, it is automatically nonsense.

In the definition I looked up, it states for nonsense: "Subject matter, behavior, or language that is foolish or absurd.". I was not claiming that what you said is foolish or absurd, I just don't agree with you.

Surely, you have to be kidding. You obviously do not think that it is possible to measure at which font size majority of people can easily read the text, at which size majority of people can comfortably hit a button with their finger etc.

You claimed you could measure similar things objectively.

I did not claim Gnome was usable on a tablet. Only that Gnome developers insist on making my desktop behave like a tablet/phone

So GNOME is not usable on a tablet. I'm a GNOME developer, and I don't insist on making your desktop behave like a tablet/phone. I don't really care what you use on your desktop actually.

I'd like to see some reference of those developers. Actually, a few designer would be more appropriate.

PS. You have just reduced decades of usability research to nothing more than someone's whim.
No need to get personal or to claim you're an expert on usability research. Seems like two different fallacy arguments.

Seeking Enlightenment (The H)

Posted Nov 6, 2012 23:34 UTC (Tue) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]

> You claimed you could measure similar things objectively.

> No need to get personal or to claim you're an expert on usability research. Seems like two different fallacy arguments.

I did not get personal. I was arguing that by your reasoning (i.e. that usability issues are purely subjective), you have reduced objective, scientific research to someone's whim.

I did not claim I could measure such things. Usability experts claim they can.

> I'm a GNOME developer, and I don't insist on making your desktop behave like a tablet/phone. I don't really care what you use on your desktop actually.

I think this just about sums up the attitude many feel is coming form Gnome developers' camp. I have been using Gnome for many years and helped with fixing of many bugs. According to you, for this I should just get scorn.

I'm not that easily dissuaded.

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