Thanks for input everyone (no input also counts)! After much thinking i figured that the past tense in question dilemma can not be solved elegantly, really. Today finally it came to my mind, that it is a reminder, a notification, an egg-timer, if you will - something that says "the specified amount of time has passed and i'm doing what you told me to do", so i reformulated question into statement, and now instead of "Are you still working on ..." it reads "Working on ..." with option to stop tracking or switch tasks - feels much more natural.
Dan, your insight also helped to figure the whole thing out! Toms On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 2:48 PM, Dan Brickley <[email protected]> wrote: > Toms wrote: >> >> Hi there! >> >> We are currently implementing a reminder notification thing in >> hamster, here is how it looks: >> http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/187829/still%20working%3F.png >> >> So, basically, after user configurable amount of time, user is >> reminded that hamster thinks that he or she is working on the current >> task. >> User has option to switch to other task, stop tracking current task, >> or just ignore the notification. >> >> I was wondering if the actions and wording sound right - any suggestions? > > My first reaction (as a potential user) was 'oh, neat! i'd like that...' (re > the app in general). Looking at the screenshot, I feel an immediate sense of > frustration: the computer is asking me a yes/no question, but gives no way > to directly answer it. > > In the screenshot I see... > > Q: 'Are you still working on Hamster?' > obvious actions: [Switch task], [Stop tracking] and [x] > > versus something like [I stopped], [I switched tasks], [Quit watching me!], > ie. actions that relate more directly to the question asked. I'm not > proposing those exact words, just noting that there's no way at the moment > to give a "No!" or "yes" response. "Switch task" is an implicit "no". > > It would be interesting to know whether these notifications often serve as > the *trigger* for users to switch tasks, rather than as a passive enquiry to > see what the user is currently doing. If this is the case, the dialog is > something like: > > computer: Are you still working on Xyz? > me: erm, well I was, until you remind me right now that maybe I ought to be > doing something else. > > At this point, a yes-no question is a little meaningless if it asks what the > user is doing right now, since the user is contemplating whether to switch > tasks. I have no idea what better wording would be, but if the reminder asks > a question, it should be clear whether it is about the past or the future. I > think that aspect is at the heart of my discomfort with the current > wording... > > Does that make any sense? > > cheers, > > Dan > > > > -- > http://danbri.org/ > > > _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
