[GRASS-dev] GRASS in a usability review

[Michael Barton]

On Feb 15, 2008, at 2:53 AM, grass-dev-request at lists.osgeo.org wrote:

> Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:53:17 +0200
> From: Wolf Bergenheim <wolf+grass at bergenheim.net>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] GRASS in a usability review
> To: Tim Michelsen <timmichelsen at gmx-topmail.de>
> Cc: GRASS developers list <grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
> Message-ID: <47B5610D.3060909 at bergenheim.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed
>
> On 13.02.2008 23:57, Tim Michelsen wrote:
>> Hello GRASS developers,
>> OpenUsabilty has opened a call for projects to participate the SoC  
>> like
>> usability review. The deadline is the 20.02.2008.
>>
>> Since I think that GRASS could really benefit from such a  
>> opportunity I
>> took the freedom to create a wiki page on this issue:
>> http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/Usability
>
>> What do you think?
>>
>
> Yes! That would be a great opportunity, not to be missed. I think we
> should definitely participate. What does that require from us? (In SoC
> we needed to assign a Mentor) The user interfaces could use guidelines
> from usability experts, to point out things which we might take for
> granted, streamlining the UI and maybe something else.
>
>> I hope that my thoughts and idea is welcomed and look forward to  
>> discuss
>> this issue with you.
>>
>
> As I said I think we should use this opportunity as long as we have  
> the
> means. I'm always interested in talking about usability for GRASS.  
> Hope
> we get some more interest then in the past...
>

In theory, a usability study would be very helpful. But (big caveat),  
I worry about results from someone who doesn't understand GIS. This  
concern comes from several years of fielding well-meaning suggestions  
(often the same ones repeated) from newbys to GRASS about why don't  
we have x--when a GIS simply doesn't do x?

GIS doesn't operate like a word processor or spreadsheet. So it's  
difficult to evaluate how useable a GIS is unless you know what a GIS  
is supposed to do.

Within those parameters, I think a usability study is a good idea. I  
remember a year or so ago, a users made a very good suggestion that  
we not have menus more than 2 levels deep and that menu item names  
should be shorter. This was difficult to do, given GRASS's  
complexity. But having done it, I think it helped usability a lot.

Michael