Review of KDE for Windows Installer
I seem to be the most productive immediately after a conference or community event. Post-KDE4 Release Event was no exception, and I’ve spent the past week taking a look at the KDE-Windows installer.
I recently completed an expert interface review of the KDE for windows installation dialog version 0.8.5. Overall there are a lot of very minor interface issues that should be quick and easy to fix. There were a few more major issues which may take more effort in fixing, such as how the progress dialog appears and some bugs(?) in the package list. The report provides suggestions on how to fix these issues, but discussion on alternatives is welcome.
KDE for Windows Installer Expert Review (PDF 885KB)
seele :: Jan.28.2008 :: General, KDE/Kubuntu, Usability :: 17 Comments »
Thanks for a so good review. Very precise and complete. I hope that windows developers will have the time to implement it.
Wow, a professional review is entirely in another level, way above me.
Anyway, I don’t know if the KDE-Win developers are going this path, but I’d say it would be more useful if the installer becomes much more than a wizard or a package manager.
I really think/envision it in the future as being a showcase for KDE products, full of eyecandy showing screenshots of everything, a glorified KHotStuff, a rich interface for previewing, selecting, downloading and managing your KDE install on Windows.
Sure it needs a major help from Oxygen/graphic designers and usability groups to become such a thing.
On page 36, shouldn’t that be “package” instead of “packet”?
Wow, I had never seen a professional usability review before and I’m positively impressed. Lots of precise advice that can be readily used. I must say I used to be sceptical about “usability” but now I’m sold. Please keep up your great work on KDE!
About the Package Selection Dialog:
The Text “please select the required packages” implies that there is already a dependency that needs to be solved. However that is not the case.
Additionaly, the common windows user expects to select single programms. It however is not possible to find any kde programm in the “Package Groups”.
I would propose to seperate the selection of programms and the selection of required packages in two dialogs.
The first dialog could show a search box for programms and allow only the selection of end user gui programms of KDE or as they are packaged now the suites. Then in the second step (second dialog) the required packages are automatically selected and a change in this selection or selecting additional programms can be done.
And sorry, for not adding this so far to the bug database…
@Matthias Pospiech: The current buildsystem on windows does not allow to select a specific application. Therefore it’s not possible for the installer to show/search them. SaroEngels is already working on a solution for this.
@chehrlic:
I meant it a bit different. You probably know which package includes which programms. So you could allow to search for a programm and then select the package-suite that includes that programm. Additional programms would then be installed as well, but that is only a matter of communcating this in the setup.
If this is already worked on, I am looking forward to look at the new setup.
interesting read for every developer, i guess!
I for sure learned something :)
Santiago: you are absolutely right, it should be package, not packet. I got caught up in the mispelling and didn’t think about the word. The report is updated.
Impressive. The most interesting part for me is that all your suggestions are totally obvious - but I would not have figured out them by myself :)
Are there any plans of other applications you are going to review? Is there a list? And can users vote for an application?
I ask because I have some apps in my mind - for example Digikam is one of the best apps around, and they are adding more and more cool features. But slowly the interface gets too crowded and it looks like there is the need to clean up the GUI without removing functionality.
And of course there are other apps where maybe such a review could enhance the user experience as well, so I would like to vote for them
Great review.
“Installation Directory” is a good suggestion but I think you need to go just a little further and call it “Installation Folder”. Not sure exactly what policy KDE uses but some consider Directory to be old school jargon and Folder is the preferred term for ordinary users.
Qt4 (specifically 4.2 if I recall correctly) has support for switching button order based on platform. Hopefully developers can take care to use that generic mechanism rather than changing the button position manually. You never know if it might be useful later.
liquidat: I don’t have an “request list” or anything like that. I tend to work on things for projects/developers I have previously worked with, or get inspired at a conference to work on something new. I have limited time for FLOSS since I work full-time so I tend to favor “fun” stuff I can get done in a week or two.
I did user testing on Digikam last spring, but never got around to compiling the results in to a report. Although some of the findings would still be applicable, I think a lot of it will be out of date.
#1 question for people in enterprise environments: Where is our MSI installation package for automated roll-outs?
THAT is usability, software simply installing flawlessly on thousands of workstations without any user interference whatsoever. The icons just appear on the menus and that’s it.
KDE people seem prot not just KDE to Windows, but also their blatant disregard for usability.
Frankly, the installer is a mess (just like, IMHO, KDE4 is - but that’s another story). I don’t care it’s just been released, it’s unusable.
I would really like to see if anyone listens to the problems outlined in this document.
I agree with Alan Horkan that it should be “Installation Folder” instead of “Installation Directory”, though I don’t think “folder” should be capitalized.
I also think
s/End User/End user/
s/Compiler Type/Compiler type/
s/Install Mode/Install mode/
Are you sure “Start Menu” shouldn’t be “Start menu”?
Maybe my ideas of what to capitalize are different/wrong :)
Great work!
Alan and Aaron: I agree it should be Folder instead of Directory. Folder is the term used in the Windows environment.
It seems that 0.8.6 is almost ready to release and they completely redesigned the interface. I hope parts of this document will still be able to help the KDE Windows team.
Some shout-outs…
Catching up with some comments and bits and pieces of news:I don’t know if anyone has tried porting KDE to that — it is a supported platform for Qt.I stand corrected on the nature of the HP compiler. Picky compilers are good. Is there anyone trying I…