Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hedora 1121 days ago
It was standard practice back then to sit non technical and (separately) expert users in front of a product, film their reactions, and then adjust the product design until most of the swearing stopped.

Gnome 2 famously did this. Gnome 3 famously threw out the findings, which is why Linux Mint exists, and how KDE (eventually) caught up on usability.
2 comments
lmm 1121 days ago
Nah. KDE 3 was better than Gnome 2 in the first place. KDE 5 has almost recovered to that level.
link
kps 1120 days ago
GNOME is an interesting case, because you can't blame it (directly) on managers pushing dark patterns to maximize conversions. Is it all just trickle-down of user-hostile design philosophy from the commercial web?
link