[bt-devel] New Windows users and user experience

[Gary Holmlund]

Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:
> 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.
>   
I agree that we need to make the first time usage more friendly and I 
like your suggestions.
> 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)
>   
I have also been thinking that the default of manual arrangement is not 
the best. I would like to see it change.

On the manual arrangement mode we have code that takes maximized windows 
and shrinks them to 400x400 when a new window is opened. That may have 
seemed friendly in some past version when a new window would hide the 
old one with no way to get to it, but we now a Windows menu to select 
the current window. Using it and keeping several windows maximized works 
quite nicely. I think the 400x400 code should be removed. Opinions?

Gary