Re: [Tails-ux] Results first Tails Server user tests

Delete this message

Reply to this message
Autore: George Kadianakis
Data:  
To: segfault, Tails user experience & user interface design
CC: anonym
Oggetto: Re: [Tails-ux] Results first Tails Server user tests
segfault <segfault@???> writes:

> [ text/plain ]
> Hi,
>
> I did five users tests in the last days, which I want to give you a
> report on:
>


Great idea. I always enjoy UX studies and I had fun reading your post :)

> # Testing process
>
> I presented them a VM with a running Tails. After a short briefing about
> what Tails and Tails Server is, I showed them the documentation (see
> attachment) and the already started Pidgin chat client. Then I gave them
> the following tasks to solve:
>
> 1. Start the Tails Server
> 2. Add the Mumble service
> 3. Start the Mumble service
> 4. Send the connection information needed to connect to the service to
> the „Amnesia“ contact in the Pidgin chat client.
> 5. Use the Mumble client to connect to your service.
> 6. Configure the Mumble service so that it will automatically start
> after a reboot of the system.
> 7. Modify the password of the Mumble service.
>
> I mainly observed the users and took notes. I also recorded the screen.
> I didn't help when they had problems with Tails Server or Mumble, but
> when they were stuck for a long time, I gave a hint to read the
> documentation (this happened two times). Afterwards I asked them what
> they thought about the application, what they liked and what they didn't
> like, and if they had any suggestions to improve it. And I gave them a
> System Usability Scale questionnaire to fill in.
>
>
> <snip>
>
> Other problems:
>
> - 2/5 tried to modify the server config via the client
>
> - 1/5 needed some time to understand that the application is hosting a
> network service and they had to use another client application to
> connect to it.
>


That's a good observation.

For most people the name "Tails server" is probably not sufficiently
self-explanatory, and if they are used in the client-side Tails model they
might not understand what it is or how it works. e.g. they could think it's
some sort of server for monitoring and controlling Tails.

I wonder how we could make the purpose of "Tails server" clearer to novice users.

> - 1/5 looked for a way to start the Mumble client from within the Tails
> Server
>
> - 1/5 didn't understand the connection info at first and tried to copy
> the required information one by one, which didn't work, because the
> service was running and the password field was grayed out, so she
> couldn't select it to copy it. The latter problem would be solved if we
> used the clickable labels or the edit mode. And I will try to make the
> connection info less confusing by making it a button which opens a
> window to display the connection info - right now it displays only a
> part of the Mumble URL in the config panel.
>
> - 1/5 was confused that the loading spinner didn't spin and wondered
> whether the application had crashed (the reason of this seems to be that
> GNOME disables animations if it runs in a VM, I don't know how to fix this)
>


Wow that's ridiculous... It indeed seems like GNOME disables
animations/spinners if the host does not support hardware acceleration... Your
VM might be able to do hardware acceleration but I'm not sure if that will fix
the issue.

Some resources which you have probably also read:
     https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1204242
     https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=732199
     https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680195


I have not actually found the part of the GNOME codebase that does this
functionality, but I can look more if you people think it can be useful.

Also, it seems like Evolution (and a few more apps) have actually implemented
their own spinner just because of this:
    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=732180#c20
It's unclear to me whether this is a good idea, or how easily we can reuse their work.


cheers!