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On Wednesday 13 October 2010 22:21:04 you wrote:

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> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 07:52:29PM +0200, Arnold Krille wrote:

> > [*] No, I don't have references at hand. I just look at the big projects

> > with their usability experts and their guide-lines. Which they create so

> > that developers like you and me don't have to worry about colors,

> > knob-behavior, widget movement and key shortcuts...

>=20

> A few comments:

>=20

> "Usability experts" in big projects are more often than not just

> market researchers. Which means that whatever they produce amounts

> to the desires of a population whose preferences are in most cases

> not the result of any rational process but of commercial manipulation

> combined with ignorance. And in any case what they turn up would be

> completely irrelevant in the context of any specialised application

> domain. I'll let audio engineers tell me how an audio app should

> look on screen, not any of those 'experts'.

That is not very fair to the usability experts working in universities, doi=

ng=20

usability-studies on free software and for free software. Yes, they try to=

=20

sell something. Free software for example...
> I've *never* seen any serious 'pro' audio application conforming

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> to whatever desktop usability standards you may suggest. And the

> same goes for applications in the other domains I've worked in:

> space telecom and military (sonar and artillery management).

Ok, so my suggestion of using CTRL+Q for 'quit' is bad. Probably my suggest=

ion=20

for using 'whatever the user wants as shortcut for quit' is also bad.

And using the colors the user wants (or needs!) instead of inforcing ones o=

wn=20

ideas is also bad.
> As an example, the typical GUI toolkit slider is a *joke* for pro

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> audio. It's just good enough to control the volume of a media player.

> One could expect it to be useful as well for e.g. controlling the

> gains of a soundcard, but even in that modest role it fails (see a

> recent thread about an improved envy24control).

I agree on the typical slider. The typical rotary knobs are bad too.

But that doesn't really mean that every app should use its own invention wi=

th=20

own graphics and own use-method, does it?
Have fun,
Arnold
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