On 02/18/2013 07:19 PM, Tom Horsley wrote
But if you read some of the articles where the justifications for
things like Gnome 3 have been presented, the developers are constantly
talking about how they are doing it all for "typical users". The problem
is that these typical users are all totally imaginary and exist inside
the designer's heads.
If they developed stuff they actually wanted to use themselves, there
would at least be a few real users instead of a crowd of imaginary
typical users.
I just dismiss that "typical user" stuff as PR fluff. What they going
to say? We develop it for atypical users?
I think developers, not just FOSS developers, usually make an effort to
create software users will like. I just think FOSS developers are poorly
positioned to find out what users need. (Indy OS X developers are in a
similar position. They are often single developers trying to make money
selling at Apple's App Store. Many don't have resources to support real
user testing, either. So, they play it by ear, like FOSS. Except they
know down to the dollar how popular their products are.)
I also think it's almost impossible for an experienced developer to
intuit what users expect from software.
The thing about designing software is that you just can't ask users what
they want, or what they like. They often say crazy things. You need to
spend time with users observing, and asking questions about, the
activities your software is supposed to support. It's the difference
between this: Ask a desert villager carrying a bucket of water back
home what he'd like. He's probably going to say, Make me a lighter
bucket. And this: I see you need to walk two miles to find water. Did
you know we can run a pipe out there?