Re: UI Guidelines -- What I'm doing [emphasis on usability]

[Sinzui Kobalt <sinzui cox rr com>]

I think having professionals involved is great, but I'm
not convinced it's a requirement.  I've met too many
designers/programmers/writers who couldn't adapt to
new environments (print, desktop, PDA, Web) or help
the average user.  I know a few good usability/UI people
and they don't have degrees in applied cognitive design.
I agree with Seth's comments regarding the great guidelines
that have already been published.  Usability is really a recent
movement in software/IT. dedicated and thoughtful
individuals can (and have) learned from the experience of
others made good applications/Information systems.

I am not an a member of the gnome-ui group, the i18n group, 
nor the gnome-accessibility group, I'm interested in them
quit a bit, as parts of the big picture--usability is
the big picture.  I hope that this groups interest in UI is
because it is a neglected project at the moment.  I think
a usability group should take the broader view of why and how
people use computers.  I'd like to see this group validating
and codify what works, and doing it with the fore mentioned
groups.  I think the long term goal of a usability group is to
develop better means of working with computers.  Applying the
experience espoused by existing guidelines is a fine start,
but that doesn't address the bigger issues.  Is the desktop
metaphor still appropriet?  Do we need different guidelines for
different devices (PDA, tablet, workstation) and different 
user groups.

I think we should use the W3C's publishing model as an
example of publishing.  Publish notes on single topics
now to get something useful to users and developers quickly. 
When after further study, taking into account the community's
response to many notes, we can prepare a working draft for
the Gnome community.  When we get consensus on the draft,
we can call it a recommendation.

I'd like to call everyones attention to the W3C's Web 
Accessibility initiative, because the WAI guidelines are 
are complimented with checklists and methods documents.
I think the companion documents provide simple measurement
of guideline conformity and how to meet the targeted
level of conformity.


__S i n z u i___________________________________
sinzui cox rr com
Guilty of stealing everything I am.