[mythtv-users] Why Free Software has poor usability ?

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Wed Aug 6 14:50:33 UTC 2008


On 08/04/2008 06:21 PM, Matt S. wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 12:15 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
>   
>> Param Singh wrote:
>>     
>>> Interesting article :: Why Free Software has poor usability, and how
>>> to improve it
>>> ============================================================
>>> Link :: http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2008/08/01/free-software-usability
>>> ============================================================
>>>
>>> Major Points in the article
>>>
>>> * Weak incentives for usability.
>>> * Few good designers.
>>> * Design suggestions often aren't invited or welcomed.
>> Well those first 3 certainly do not apply to the MythTV project.
>>     
> You are joking right?  These first 3 defintely apply to myth and if
> you don't think that, then that's exactly the kind of behavior that
> this article is pointing out.
>   
...
> *Usability - could be WAY better.  I would never want to deploy myth
> to someone who wasn't technical like me.  However, I like it, because
> I am a power user.  But, usability has never been a primary focus of
> the project, it's always been secondary to functionality.  In fact, go
> search the archives and you'll get nearly 500+ emails on usability:
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?list=mythtv&do=search_results&search_forum=forum_1&search_string=usability&search_type=AND
> not to mention I remember a thread from a couple years ago where
> someoen was offering to do usability testing on myth because they felt
> usability sucked, but it wasn't really welcomed - I think it might
> have been this thread:
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/158724?search_string=usability%20test;#158724
> or this great example:
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/172094?search_string=usability%20assessment;#172094
> (couldn't find the whole thread on Gossamer).
>
>   

OK.  My view of MythTV (based on what I've seen on the lists) shows that 
the biggest usability problem with MythTV is the sheer number of options 
that users must configure appropriately when first setting up their 
system.  That's also the reason for "competitors" (are we really 
competing with anyone?) use "mythtv is a lot of work" as a marketing 
tool (as pointed out by the OP in a follow-up at 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/344625#344625 ).

So, a while ago, as part of the Google Summer of Code, a very zealous 
student decided to help out with usability by making it easier to setup 
and configure ( 
http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/SoC2006#Settings_Rework.2FEnhancements 
).  So, he posted a message to the -dev list with his proposed changes ( 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/207059#207059 ) and all 
sorts of users came out of the woodwork to tell him exactly why all the 
/completely useless/ settings he was proposing to remove needed to stay 
(read the whole thread to see--my favorite was the "Time offset for 
thumbnail preview images," which some clueless users still think is useful).

So, what happened?  The poor kid basically didn't have a chance at 
finishing the project because we were forced to:

> * Placating people with options. - Seriously, do I even need to point
> out the hundreds of discussions on simplifying settings?  Also, what
> about the "hidden" options that are only available by directly editing
> the database.

Seriously, if you all want usability, do the work yourself, and don't 
get mad when your work is rejected because a bunch of users who don't 
take time to understand what's really happening both before /and/ after 
the change.  And, if your change is accepted, follow-up by doing the 
work required to educate users and solve their problems when they don't 
realize things changed or can't figure out how to do what they want with 
the new approach (and write any follow-up code to fix the problems 
discovered when tested by other users).

Or, if someone else does something to improve things, please stop 
b****ing if your "Recording brightness for shows from channels whose 
name ends with '-dark'" option gets removed from Myth.  Instead, figure 
out how it's /supposed/ to work and do things right.  (Yeah, that's a 
made-up option so I don't bruise anyone's fragile ego by calling out any 
(more) of the real useless settings.)  Usability doesn't mean you never 
have to learn and adapt to changes--take a look at MS Office 2007 if you 
don't believe me...  :)

Either that, or rewrite Myth yourself--I've heard it can be done in only 
40 lines of Perl.

Mike



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list