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[BTW, I apologise for all this text but I HAVE to explain my thinking and reasoning here fully!]
What I would do if I were in the KDE team is, after implementing “Lock down mode” so Enterprise is happy is the move to a new app which is very highly visible on systems where lock down mode is disabled. The app would be called literally “How do I” Because that’s how people think, as I say.
When the user wonders ‘How do I?” they will gravitate naturally to the “How do I” app.
SIMPLE.
Open it up and a screen opens up with a set of hyperlinks to commonly asked questions revolving around the FAQs. The app, however, does not only give advice – it also solves the problem and provides a shield to system settings.
Let me explain by example. A user wants to change his default media player from MPV to VLC. The “How do I” question must be simple and global so in the hypertext link pages we have:
“How do I… change the application a certain file open in?”
User clicks/touches the link and a new page appears like a Microsoft Wizard with something like:
“What kind of file do you want to change the program association for?”
Media such as video and audio
Word processor doc
Spreadsheet doc
Presentation doc
Raw text file
Picture file
PDF file
Note that only a simplified list if shown of the most common file types and nothing for, say, Blender files or video editing! Most users are content consumers and not content producers anyway. Note however, that at the bottom of the page is a button marked ‘Advanced.’ If the user clicks on this then “File associations’ setting setting scree appears in all it’s glory! Absolutely “Simple by default, powerful when needed.” From here the more advanced user can set their more specialised apps.
The user, I this use case, clicks/touchs “Media such as video and audio”
A new screen appears with:
“Which program do you want to open audio and video files for play back with?”
A list of all media players (but not audio only) appears and the user can click/touch ‘VLC player.”
Message appears
“Job done! All media files will now play with VLC player.”
User closes the window.
Now, this Wizard system is dumb. It’s brain dead simple and does not differentiate between audio and video files because… a lot of users do not get the difference anyway. Sure, a lot of techie Linux users do and will have, say, Audacious for MP3’s and VLC for video but Joe Public just wants “my video and audio files to play correctly!” So you shove anything into a general purpose tool and be done with it.
I run my own small private tuition business and I am busy enough to have to hire local part time staff and provide loadsa laptops for kids to do research on, research, write essays and reports on and.. play media files – often anime. While my laptop is fine tuned for my needs, my business laptops – including a very humble single core atom N455 – have all media files associated with VLC player – end of story, period! VLC plays anything and that’s what I need in the heat of battle… and end of year exams take no prisoners!
‘How do I’ is dumbed down so changing setting becomes simple to the point of stupid. So, when people complain; “But changing settings in KDE is too complex” you/we could then point to “How about ‘How do I?’ and ask “Is that simple enough for you?”
But the other advantage of the ‘How do I’ system is that it can be extended according to the frequency of the support call. If support in the University or business or Galactic Empire keeps dealing with the same query over and over again like, maybe, “Everyone keeps asking how they can set KDE to double click to open files and folders!” then you add it to the “How do I” list and the user can change it by just clicking on the hyperlink. So support get their problems solved for them by KDE itself.
What I would do if I were in the KDE team is, after implementing “Lock down mode” so Enterprise is happy is the move to a new app which is very highly visible on systems where lock down mode is disabled. The app would be called literally “How do I” Because that’s how people think, as I say.
When the user wonders ‘How do I?” they will gravitate naturally to the “How do I” app.
SIMPLE.
Open it up and a screen opens up with a set of hyperlinks to commonly asked questions revolving around the FAQs. The app, however, does not only give advice – it also solves the problem and provides a shield to system settings.
Let me explain by example. A user wants to change his default media player from MPV to VLC. The “How do I” question must be simple and global so in the hypertext link pages we have:
“How do I… change the application a certain file open in?”
User clicks/touches the link and a new page appears like a Microsoft Wizard with something like:
“What kind of file do you want to change the program association for?”
Media such as video and audio
Word processor doc
Spreadsheet doc
Presentation doc
Raw text file
Picture file
PDF file
Note that only a simplified list if shown of the most common file types and nothing for, say, Blender files or video editing! Most users are content consumers and not content producers anyway. Note however, that at the bottom of the page is a button marked ‘Advanced.’ If the user clicks on this then “File associations’ setting setting scree appears in all it’s glory! Absolutely “Simple by default, powerful when needed.” From here the more advanced user can set their more specialised apps.
The user, I this use case, clicks/touchs “Media such as video and audio”
A new screen appears with:
“Which program do you want to open audio and video files for play back with?”
A list of all media players (but not audio only) appears and the user can click/touch ‘VLC player.”
Message appears
“Job done! All media files will now play with VLC player.”
User closes the window.
Now, this Wizard system is dumb. It’s brain dead simple and does not differentiate between audio and video files because… a lot of users do not get the difference anyway. Sure, a lot of techie Linux users do and will have, say, Audacious for MP3’s and VLC for video but Joe Public just wants “my video and audio files to play correctly!” So you shove anything into a general purpose tool and be done with it.
I run my own small private tuition business and I am busy enough to have to hire local part time staff and provide loadsa laptops for kids to do research on, research, write essays and reports on and.. play media files – often anime. While my laptop is fine tuned for my needs, my business laptops – including a very humble single core atom N455 – have all media files associated with VLC player – end of story, period! VLC plays anything and that’s what I need in the heat of battle… and end of year exams take no prisoners!
‘How do I’ is dumbed down so changing setting becomes simple to the point of stupid. So, when people complain; “But changing settings in KDE is too complex” you/we could then point to “How about ‘How do I?’ and ask “Is that simple enough for you?”
But the other advantage of the ‘How do I’ system is that it can be extended according to the frequency of the support call. If support in the University or business or Galactic Empire keeps dealing with the same query over and over again like, maybe, “Everyone keeps asking how they can set KDE to double click to open files and folders!” then you add it to the “How do I” list and the user can change it by just clicking on the hyperlink. So support get their problems solved for them by KDE itself.
).
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