[bt-devel] New Windows users and user experience

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

I'm a bit worried about the user experience of new users especially on
Windows. The first impression is very important. There are lots of free
Bible applications for Windows out there and if people don't find
BibleTime easy and friendly to use they'll abandon it immediately. Also
the negative reviews will be visible for a long time even if they come
obsolete. Therefore the basic usability and workflow is even more
important than bug-freeness.

On *nix most of our users have been accustomed to works-out-of-the-box
behaviour, but we don't offer a starter set of modules. A quick fix is
to add a clause to the Download web page and also to the installer. The
latter could tell in the Finish page that user has to open
Settings->Bookshelf Manager, add sources and install some works.

Even better, though not excluding the other helpers, is to add a text
box into the empty main window area telling what to do next. I think I
will experiment with this idea for 2.5 or 2.6. This would work on all
platforms. We have had a feature of opening the installer window when
starting BT if there are no modules installed, but I don't know if it's
user friendly.

Another small thing which have bugged me for a long time is the window
arrangement mode. Manually arranging subwindows is old-fashioned and
tidy. Who wants to do it? I would rather select automatic tiling as a
default. This could also be mentioned in the empty main area text box.

  Yours,
	Eeli Kaikkonen (Mr.), Oulu, Finland
	e-mail: eekaikko at mailx.studentx.oulux.fix (with no x)