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Sidebar API usability study

  • Artikel

We just finished up a usability study investigating the new Sidebar and Tile APIs.
We asked participants to write code to accomplish the following:

- Create a tile that says 'Hello World'.

Create a tile that displays an image covering the whole tile and that additionally  
displays a smaller image on top, only whenever the user mouses over the tile. Then  
add a flyout to the tile which, when activated, displays both images, one underneath  
the other.
  • Create a tile that contains a list box and two buttons. The buttons should be labeled
    'New task1' and 'New task 2' respectively. When the user clicks one of these buttons,
    add a new entry to the list box that is the same as the label of the button that was
    pressed. Then create a properties dialog for the tile. The properties dialog should
    contain two buttons labeled 'Change to Task1' and 'Change to Task2' respectively.
    When clicked, they should change the labels on the buttons on the main tile to 'Tile1'
    and 'Tile2' as respectively.

We got some interesting results from this study, particularly about the Tile API infrastructure.
I'd be interested in hearing your feedback regarding these scenarios. If you have
a copy of the bits that were handed out at PDC, open up Visual Studio, choose New
Project and then create a Longhorn Tile project and then start working on the tasks
listed above. I'd love to know how you get on.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 28, 2003
    It is good that usability is being tested for Avalon. Looking at the docs online, I have the feeling it is one of the least-usable APIs I have ever seen. The xml looks easy but the API is very complex and over-engineered.
  • Anonymous
    November 28, 2003
    Thanks for the feedback Frank. Can you give some specific examples of where you think the API is too complex and how it could be made more usable?
  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2003
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 02, 2003
    Thanks for the comments Frank, I'll pass them on to the team.
  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2003
    I added a response to the above question about the "Length" type to my blog. You can find the response at http://weblogs.asp.net/greg_schechter/posts/41336.aspx.
  • Anonymous
    December 04, 2003
    I added a response to the above question about the "Changeable" class to my blog. You can find the response at http://weblogs.asp.net/greg_schechter/posts/41362.aspx.