[Usability] Quicky review of Seahorse encryption key manager

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

Proposal for Seahorse inclusion in GNOME 2.18
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2006-September/msg00159.html

"Suggestions for how Seahorse can improve are welcome, as are ideas for
making encryption easier for users. Taking a look at a recent seahorse
release will help your comments that much more insightful"

Seahorse screenshots
http://www.gnome.org/projects/seahorse/screenshots.html

Apologies in advance but I'm working off the screenshots to start with and
I will try and get recent binaries or compile Seahorse later for more
detailed feedback.  The screenshots are not dated or marked with any
version so I'll assume they are from the most recent release*.

I figured I should take a quick look at Seahorse and provide feedback now
rather than later (especially since I feel burned by some of the last
minute changes made to Baobab supposedly in the name of HIG compliance but
that is a rant for another time).  I'm not an expert but I know what I
like and I am familiar with the Human Interface Guidelines as well as the
Documentation Style Guide (which is very relevant to the use of language
in the interface).

I do not see a grippy on the lower right corner which suggests you aren't
using the standard status bar widget.

The first dialog includes the following labels on the Tabs:
"My Personal Keys"
"Keys I trust"
"Keys I've Collected"

This kind of informality is out of keeping and inconsistent with the style
of Gnome.  Microsoft have even stated they will drop the "My" prefix in
front of "My Documents" in their next release, about a decade overdue.
I would encourage you to also avoid the "My" prefix.

Abbreviations should generally be avoided to maintain maximum clarity.
There is no benifit in trying to compact things ("I've") as you need to
leave enough extra space for translations which may not be as terse as
English.

More appropriate labels would be:
"Personal Keys"
"Trusted Keys"
"Collected Keys".

The "Create a New Key" dialog has conflicting mnemonics, the same letter
is used for both _Cancel and _Continue.  (I cannot be sure from just a
screenshot but Close might be a more pedantically correct label if there
is no previous action needing to be cancelled.)

I see a Tab heading labelled "Name/Signature" it would be preferable to
pick one or the other or a different lable entirely to cover both
concepts.

Acronyms (and abbrevations) should generally be avoided to maintain
maximum clarity.  They obscure information that might otherwise inform and
educate the user.  Intelligent well educated people can be blocked out by
acronyms by virtue of not knowing the jargon of your subject area but
given the chance the full words would make much more sense.  For example
SSH is short for Secure Shell (SSH) and using the full words (possibly
followed by the shortened form after it in brackets) give users a concept
they can hold on to "Secure Shell"  rather than a much more obtuse
acronym.  They still might not quite understand the shell part but at
least they have a chance of gaining that little extra bit of understanding
if you provide the information.  Learnability.

I hope to try out Seahorse soon and provide a more thorough review.
Best of luck with getting Seahorse included in Gnome.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

* Okay so it is a slightly unfair assumption and wishful thinking but it
sure would be nice if were true.