Open arthur-parmentier opened 4 years ago
thibaudk
commented
4 years ago Hi @arthur-parmentier I added comments in the automated-speed tutorial https://github.com/OSSIA/score-user-library
Let me know if that makes it clearer, it is mainly here to show the "retroactive" potential of score, how a scenario can manipulate it's own parameters.
jcelerier
commented
4 years ago Hey, thanks for all the feedback ! And sorry for your pains. Likely the clicking and similar small-scope issues can be solved easily.
One thing regarding :
b) I would normaly find the most important panels on the left of the software. In the same way than Unity3D, I think that the object panel would really go on the left side, and be closely connected to the "library" so that we can know that it is a library... of objects (and not bananas).
interesting that you think that, as I remember that we looked at Unity among many other and decided that right was what most common. In particular it's very inspired from the way 3D software do it :
c) I suggest you to perform some advanced usability testings, and starting with remote usability testing where you can ask some newbies to perform an action and you could observe how they are searching for it. It would allow you to observe what the participants are struggling with, how they would expect things to work and get a lot of feedback on the quality of the userflow. Then, for more precise points in the future, A/B testing for single changes is good, because you can for instance test how much changing a single element improves the performance of a group of user at performing several task etc.
That would be a great way to improve, but it requires much more time and money budget than what we have today :/ considering that there is right now zero long-term funding, and just enough one-shot fundings to cover developments for this year. If people were willing to sit into a room to do A/B tests for two hours for free that would be a different story, but as it stands...
hamoid
commented
4 years ago If people were willing to sit into a room to do A/B tests for two hours for free
Asking may work :) Maybe remotely and screen sharing with jitsi?
My firsts impression was similar to what Arthur describes above. I kept trying to connect certain things and failing without really understanding the logic. Now I'm waiting for the new version to try again.
arthur-parmentier
commented
4 years ago @thibaudk thanks, I will take a look tomorrow!
@jcelerier : reading your comment, I realize that I may not be right about the positioning of the object panel, maybe I worked too much on Unity VS other softs. The part of my comment that I think remains relevant is that the object panel could be less confusing with namings, and perhaps bringing it closer to the library of objects would make things clearer.
I fully understand the issues with funding, time and ressources.
As @hamoid suggested, there can be alternatives. For instance, I would be fine with participating in such a testing for few hours if I learn from it, and it allows me to achieve what I want after that time with Score. Basically, if the usability testing is made in a way that the task corresponds more or less to what the users would like to do with Score, they would also gain from it, so for me it would be less pain spending 3 hours remotely with you or others from the dev team, while I could get live feedback/advices and design help with my particular case.
jcelerier
commented
4 years ago @hamoid that's a nice suggestion, thanks ! Given the limited amount of time available I'm wondering if it would make more sense to make something in the screencast format, that can easily be recorded and then pointing other people to it as I don't think that 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 chat sessions would scale :p
I'm wondering also, do you know if participants to CC Berlin would be interested in joining in such a test ?
Another thing that we had in mind for some time is, making a page with examples of simple use cases and short, < 2 minute video of how to achieve that use case in score. For instance :
Do you think that would be something useful to have ?
hamoid
commented
4 years ago @jcelerier Personally I find screencasts very useful for learning. I have recorded many myself in the past for Processing and some for SuperCollider. I would be happy to watch them.
And I can definitely suggest Ossia Score as a topic in our next Creative Code Jam. Those interested could watch screencasts and provide feedback to you. That's always the 3rd Saturday of the month. Last two events happened online and some people joined from different countries. We can figure out a format that works for everyone :)
I also like your idea of short videos with specific use cases. Last year I created a music video and I went from almost no Blender experience to the result in two months and the thing that made it possible was the huge collection of Blender tutorials online. Many of those were explaining a single concept I needed to move forward. So yes! :)
arthur-parmentier
commented
4 years ago @jcelerier I think the elements that you mention for the <2 minutes videos are great, especially if they could be very easy and quick to make, compared to longer tutorials!
Hello,
I find it more and more difficult to use score for basic operations/functions and starting used to the workflow.
I would like to report some important points that I find annoying and that I think would refrain new users to using score:
1) Selecting elements is often difficult or counter-intuitive. Examples: a) in the "condition" tutorial, selecting the conditions elements that are overlayed with lines or dots (or other elements) is very hard. For instance, selecting the condition element under "nex comment" is nearly impossible for me and I stop trying after a few attempts. I would expect that clicking on the yellow curve would select the element, but it does not; when I try to click closer to the middle of the element, I can only select the dot or line element. b) triggers that lie on the extreme part of loops or windows are very hard to select/toggle c) again, visual feedback would help a lot (changing pointer of visual effect on elements when hovering over them) and save a lot of pain
2) The overall visual structure of score is not very suggestive and does not let the user "guess" how things work instead of always going throughout documentation/tutorial. In my specific case, I estimate that I struggle 3-5 times more with than what I would expect when using a new software, given my experience with many other softs. a) Namings could be improved. In "device explorer", I now know that I can find either local variables or variables that are used with OSC devices. I find the name "device" not very suggestive. The upper right "objects" panel is also confusing, mostly because the default namings of object is very obscure, partly because there is an "history" button under the "object" title which has nothing to do ith the object panel. b) I would normaly find the most important panels on the left of the software. In the same way than Unity3D, I think that the object panel would really go on the left side, and be closely connected to the "library" so that we can know that it is a library... of objects (and not bananas). Then, I would have the inspector and "device explorer" panels on the right. The info panel should be on the bottom left, bigger and should display relevant information, and much more detailled than what it shows for now, especially when interacting with the main score view. c) I suggest you to perform some advanced usability testings, and starting with remote usability testing where you can ask some newbies to perform an action and you could observe how they are searching for it. It would allow you to observe what the participants are struggling with, how they would expect things to work and get a lot of feedback on the quality of the userflow. Then, for more precise points in the future, A/B testing for single changes is good, because you can for instance test how much changing a single element improves the performance of a group of user at performing several task etc.
3) An other example of something I struggle with: take the automated speed tutorial. When I open it, I have at first no idea of how things work. I have to guess that I can strech the pattern elements to see what's inside, the name "pattern" is not obvious, the js script is not commented and not obvious as well, then the connections between the elements are hidden and I could not see how it works. Imagine that I unstack the loop.2 elements and want to place it between the loop.3 and loop.4 element. I have tried several times/several ways and did not find an obvious solution.
I hope all this can help :)