Tip dialogs

[Olly Betts]

On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 11:19:52AM +0100, Andy Waddington wrote:
> [E]very time I install a piece of software for a new user, or on a new
> distribution, or on a different machine, one of these pops up by
> default. One has to click the little box, then close the window.

If you're installing a piece of software for a new user, you're doing
them a disservice by disabling such dialogs on their behalf.  You
may not find them useful, but they aren't really aimed at you -
they're aimed at someone less at ease with computers (which they
must be otherwise they'd be installing the software for themselves).

> I have never seen a useful tip, which was relevant to anything I
> wanted to do at the time it appeared.

Well if your first action on seeing such a dialog is to instantly
disable it so you never see one again, I'm not suprised you've never
seen a useful tip.

> There is absolutely no
> context sensitivity because they always appear at startup, when
> the program has no way of knowing what sort of things you are
> about to do.

Nonsense.  Applications can keep persistent state on disk - the
application can have a good idea what you're about to do because
it can know what you did last time you ran the program.  It's really not
that hard to suppress tips for features a user clearly knows how to use
- it just requires a bit of thought.  If there are no appropriate tips
left, the dialog can quietly disable itself.

Just because you've seen something done badly doesn't necessarily
mean it can't be done well.

> But why would you want to write code for people who don't read
> manuals ?

I don't read manuals if I can avoid it.  Life's too short and there
are better things to do - manuals are often jargon ridden (or poorly
written in other ways), or assume too much, or too little.  And even
if I read the manual from cover to cover before ever loading the
application, I wouldn't be able to take in every detail.

I generally expect to be able to pick up a GUI application and apply my
familiarity with its purpose, with other applications, and with the
operating system to understand how to use it.  And generally this
works.

For example, I know how to write a letter given pen and paper.  If I
can't work out how to write a letter in a word processor without reading
the manual, something is very wrong with the design on that word
processor.

> It is just asking for ignorant stupid people to use your
> software (who aren't the sort of people you want surveying caves
> anyway) and wasting your time with support emails.

Please stop being so patronizing.  Just because someone isn't
technically minded or hasn't being using computers for 30 years like you
doesn't make them stupid (or ignorant in the negative way you mean it).

Emails seeking support aren't a waste of my time, and I really don't
appreciate public rants from other people telling people that they are.
Your attitude risks people not reporting problems because they think
they'll be ridiculed or ignored.  "It can't be a bug, it must be just me
being too stupid and ignorant".  And so the bug won't be fixed, and
we've just lost a chance to make Survex better.

Even a problem report which turns out to be a user misunderstanding
is productive.  If one user has misunderstood something, others will
too.  If there's a way to eliminate or reduce the possibility of
misunderstanding then everyone wins.

> > The "sort of people you want surveying caves" are people who are reasonably 
> > intelligent, can read instruments, write down numbers and draw sketches. 
> > This is not the same as being computer literate.
> 
> I am not suggesting for one moment that cave surveyors (doing the work
> underground) need to be computer literate. But ones doing the data processing
> need to be the sort of people who think about what they are doing, and
> understand enough of the theory behind it that they will not do things which
> give silly results and totally fail to spot this.

The computer should be just another tool for surveyors.  The days of the
computer as a data processing oracle you could only communicate with
through high priests who knew the arcane rituals and runes are long
gone.

If someone has enough nous to go underground and read instruments and
make sketches, they should also be capable of at least performing
the standard tasks of entering that data, processing it, and printing it
out.  If they can't then we've failed in our job.

My experience indicates the trickiest part of this cycle at present for
most people is understanding how and where to link a new survey into a
large dataset.

> Although it is a list for Survex users, as well as developers, it is the
> latter who conduct most business here.

I would say this list is PRIMARILY for Survex users, especially as all
the developers are also users.

> All developers find it very hard to
> get useful feedback out of real users, so comments are most welcome.

So true.  And we find it especially hard when people mouth off on the
mailing list and suggest that the "real" users are "ignorant stupid
people"...

I was aware before I asked that most experienced users wouldn't see tip
dialogs as useful (as they aren't really aimed to help them), although
like Wookey I've found the ones in the Gimp useful sometimes

But sadly those who responded first have done so with such ferocity that
I doubt anyone will want to speak up for finding them useful.  Do please
feel free to contact me privately (as one person has already) - I really
do want to hear all opinions.

Cheers,
    Olly