KDE Usability - First Steps

Test Results (Continued)

The Big Issue: Embedded Viewers

While all participants were able to go through most of the test with various degrees of speed and confidence, one task, number five, consistently frustrated all of them. This was due to KDE 3.0's default left click action, be it single or double-click, which is to show a document using an “embedded viewer.”

When users were asked to edit a text file located in their home directory, they clicked on the file's icon opening the document with the embedded viewer in read-only mode. Because the interface gives no indications of what really happened half of the users failed to complete task five, adding a line of text at the end of a file. Even the participants who succeeded did so after much searching and experimenting, by either right-clicking on the document when previewed and finding the “Open With” item of the context menu, or by moving the document to the desktop which does not support embedded viewers.

The problem with embedded viewers did not only reveal itself with text files but also with compressed archives. Clicking on a compressed file's icon displays the file's content as if it had never been compressed in the first place, or as if it had been automatically expanded by Konqueror [1]. At least one user started working on one of the compressed files as if it had been available to her (and the file system) in its uncompressed form.

Because from the user's perspective a document appears to be opening normally when displayed by the embedded viewer, users realizing that they cannot modify that document react as if they had done something wrong. In other words, whereas sometimes users can recognize unexpected behavior from the computer and try to adjust, this is one of these cases when it seems like the only explanation for their difficulties is that they are at fault, not knowing something as simple as editing a text file. Users blaming themselves for the ineptitude of their computer systems is unfortunately quite common.

Using embedded viewers by default makes sense for documents which are almost never edited directly such as PDF or Postscript files. It may also make sense in the case of documents which are primarily viewed or heard and not edited such as HTML or MP3 files. For all other file types, the current choice is more questionable and as long as there isn't an easy way to tell the user that what he/she is looking at is read-only I think that it should be reconsidered. The difficulties presented by embedded viewers is even more apparent when you contrast it to how easily people are able to open files placed on the desktop when using embedded viewers is not an option.3

Well, that's it for this first test. I hope that you could find something in it to inspire you to make KDE even better than it is now. I know I have learnt a lot from it. As I start writing the next test, I'd really like to read what you have to say about this one. The best comments will be added, with their author's permission, to this article. You can drop me a line at <seb at viralata dot net>