From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 06:57:42 -0400, bad sector wrote:

You sit down with test subjects and run them through the hoops that
be ...UNTIL you get no more questions from them anymore. THAT's when
your design or composition is ready for release and not before.

Presumably you sit down with a new, different group of subjects for
each iteration. Otherwise you’re just habituating them to the quirks
of your particular design.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 10/1/25 2:04 AM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 06:57:42 -0400, bad sector wrote:

You sit down with test subjects and run them through the hoops that
be ...UNTIL you get no more questions from them anymore. THAT's when
your design or composition is ready for release and not before.

Presumably you sit down with a new, different group of subjects for
each iteration. Otherwise you’re just habituating them to the quirks
of your particular design.

Good idea! But we could be jumping the gun a little. The industry (most industries) seems to be drifting in the opposite direction, that of the coke-machine 'business-model' as zookerbooger would say. In this model
the supply-side produces and packs into a 'dispenser' where you take
what's offered, period. We've come a long way since my childhood days
when the farmer produced an all around A1 quality product so when he
stacked up the water melons at the market people could get a taste of
one before buying it.


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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On Wed, 1 Oct 2025 08:44:06 -0400, bad sector wrote:

On 10/1/25 2:04 AM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 06:57:42 -0400, bad sector wrote:

You sit down with test subjects and run them through the hoops that be
...UNTIL you get no more questions from them anymore. THAT's when your
design or composition is ready for release and not before.

Presumably you sit down with a new, different group of subjects for
each iteration. Otherwise you’re just habituating them to the quirks of
your particular design.

Good idea! But we could be jumping the gun a little. The industry (most industries) seems to be drifting in the opposite direction, that of the coke-machine 'business-model' as zookerbooger would say. In this model
the supply-side produces and packs into a 'dispenser' where you take
what's offered, period.

The proprietary companies have certainly long been like that. I can
remember when folks at Apple (like Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini), for example, prided themselves on conducting proper user-interface testing. Tog even
wrote a book on it, which I have.

Nowadays the only ones really offering a choice of UI are the open-source people.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux

On 10/10/25 8:13 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Wed, 1 Oct 2025 08:44:06 -0400, bad sector wrote:

On 10/1/25 2:04 AM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 06:57:42 -0400, bad sector wrote:

You sit down with test subjects and run them through the hoops that be >>>> ...UNTIL you get no more questions from them anymore. THAT's when your >>>> design or composition is ready for release and not before.

Presumably you sit down with a new, different group of subjects for
each iteration. Otherwise you’re just habituating them to the quirks of >>> your particular design.

Good idea! But we could be jumping the gun a little. The industry (most
industries) seems to be drifting in the opposite direction, that of the
coke-machine 'business-model' as zookerbooger would say. In this model
the supply-side produces and packs into a 'dispenser' where you take
what's offered, period.

The proprietary companies have certainly long been like that. I can
remember when folks at Apple (like Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini), for example, prided themselves on conducting proper user-interface testing. Tog even
wrote a book on it, which I have.

Nowadays the only ones really offering a choice of UI are the open-source people.

I once wrote a little prog in Perl using html as the GUI (Perl at that
time was very good for that). Optional argument or 'switch' buttons were
not is short supply but I thought that the 1920x1200 monitor was being under-employed so I decided to print the actual command line including
all switches including the change executed by that last button with the
active buttons highlighted, the last button used AND the last cLi change
also highlighted in another color at the bottom of the dialog window
(the command line sometimes taking up 2-3 lines). In all humility that
was by far the best dammned GUI that I have ever seen. Nowadays I see
password prompts that do not state WHICH password is being solicited,
only 'authentication required'... puke, puke, puke.

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