On Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:28:48 +0200 Dirk Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Eric Jorgensen wrote: > > I've only been using open source software for 15 years, but a common > > thread I've seen in user interface design is that it generally looks > > like it was conceived of by a programmer, and thus typically meets > > the barest of strict requirements by a hair or less, and has > > workflow characteristics that too closely resemble procedural > > programming. > > Yes, that is true. The problem with that is that it is not easy to > find designer for open source projects. We are all coder. I asked on > the list several times for designer but got not much response. I can > code it, tell me about the look and feel ... and for Freevo: we need > more developers. The main UI features of Freevo as it stands now are not bad at all, and where static content is concerned, far better than myth. I wish i could offer design assistance but, well, that's not where i have experience. I'm in software QA - bringing attention to warts is what i do. Tivo put a huge amount of money and effort into their UI design. Insiders say that they had their 'trick play' live pause engine working flawlessly for four years before they let anyone outside the company see the user interface without first signing a nondisclosure agreement, because they knew that the Wife Acceptance Factor had to be extremely high. And they nailed it. There's a reason why Tivo has such loyal customers, and it's not the cute animated logo/mascot. Even my mother, who is in her sixties, took to the Tivo "MyWorld" UI immediately. These days she has a cable-company-provided PVR, and says it's nowhere near as good as her old tivo. I need to figure out if the cable-card-capable tivos have an interface for the on-demand video her cable co offers so maybe she can stop renting their hackish attempt at a PVR. One of the things i personally really appreciate about my tivo is it's ability to let me quickly browse through a huge amount of guide data so i can find out exactly what i wanted to know without much hassle. I can, for example, with half a dozen key presses, learn what movies are starting over the next few hours. It's handy. If I turn on the tv and find that it's an hour into something that looks interesting, it's just a few key presses to determine when it'll be on next, and a couple more to schedule a recording. I wouldn't say it's intuitive - because until computers can read minds, no software is intuitive - but it appeals to human intuition in the sense that it adheres to it's own design standards consistently, and rarely if ever violates what some in the software QA business refer to as the Law of Least Astonishment. Which is, of course, that at all times, in any circumstances, no matter how dire, the software should cause the user the least amount of astonishment possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
