Tekania wrote:Hairless Kitten II wrote:Bad idea? It is a standard approach or wait a minute, it should be a standard approach for ALL applications.
It should NOT be the standard approach for all applications. Applications which fit GP roles, should not be specialized. Building something for a specialized industry should. Or the better model is GP applications with add-ons which allow for its tailoring to a particular industry when needed.
Hairless Kitten II wrote:Even if you work for a big audience, you still can create user profiles, conduct a task context analysis, create environment profiles, etc...
Not everything of an OS is used by everyone, the diverse parts can be designed to the specific needs of a specific public.
Or do you really think that by instance the registry in Windows is used by all?
Well, besides my absolute abhorrence of the implementation of the Windows Registry in the first place... No, not everyone needs go there. But then why argue ease of repair if you're not expecting "everyday people" to do them?
Hairless Kitten II wrote:At Amazon they did work with several usability engineering approaches. Amazon is having more customers as Linux is having users.
You are that Linux advocate isn't?
I'm a common-sense advocate, I work multi-platform. My opinions on Linux are ones built over supporting various OS/Platforms in the marketplace over more than a decade... I don't order people to shift, I sit down with their needs, and present IT budget requirements, existing infrastructure and software needs/wants/uses; and do TCO's which cover Software Costs/Migration, Hardware Costs/Upgrades, Maintenance Cost and (Re)training Costs (where needed or advised).... Then I let the numbers speak... See, unlike Corp-Sales-Reps, I don't make money trying to push a product-line... My goal is what is best for the client, and since about 80% of my new business is word-of-mouth referrals from existing clients, I must be doing something right...
And that's the reason why Linux fails on usability. Most Linux people I know, but not all, share your narrow view.
In fact usability engineering is a little like marketing:
If you don't know who your customers are, then it will be harder to find them.
If you don't know how they will use it, then you will build the wrong functionality and you will be not aware about the needed one.
If you don't know where they will use it then you are risking to make bikinis for people near the pole circle.
It's not that your audience is huge that you can't provide these specific data. No, it will be not as precisly as making software for 20 or 30 people, but it is still much better than a programmer that is creating software with himself as the audience.
Programmers in the Linux world (but also at Windows or Mac) make mostly the following mistakes:
1) All the people are like me, the programmer
2) All the people are the same.
Now, you know why it is sometimes difficult to get things done on a Linux machine and why Linux is having only a market share of 1% since 18 years.
In the perception of a nerd, a Linux system is user-friendly, in the perception of the other species it's a mess.
Most people are not nerds.