#FOSSBack: Eileen Wagner - Design FAQs from 5 Years of Coaching FOSS Projects

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Some food for thoughts

Pat highlighted one of the many good points from the video

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twitter.com is mapped to 127.0.0.1 on my machine. Means I have to stay hungry


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Then learn to use tools like nitter.net you can just do s/twitter.com/nitter.net/ and it will work.

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@heckflosse nitter might help with any issues you have with twitter?

https://nitter.net/about

Nitter is a free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy. The source is available on GitHub at GitHub - zedeus/nitter: Alternative Twitter front-end

  • No JavaScript or ads
  • All requests go through the backend, client never talks to Twitter
  • Prevents Twitter from tracking your IP or JavaScript fingerprint
  • Unofficial API (no rate limits or developer account required)
  • Lightweight (for @nim_lang, 60KB vs 784KB from twitter.com)
  • RSS feeds
  • Themes
  • Mobile support (responsive design)
  • AGPLv3 licensed, no proprietary instances permitted
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I’d tend to agree with the idea that if you have to read the manual to learn to use a program for general use, it’s user unfriendly.

I constantly think of ways to improve the onboarding process in Filmulator. My first approach was to make sure tooltips explain not just “what” but also “why”
 but I’m not entirely sure the people who need their guidance the most will find it.

Maybe I should have a global “help” button that outlines every item that has a tooltip and causes all tooltips to appear without delay.

More recently I added import presets and explanatory text in empty spaces that describo how to use the workflow and gives keyboard shortcuts. I probably need user testing to see what else I may need to add to those.

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Though this is a good advice, the tone of the advice (Then learn to use
) is not good :frowning: Maybe learn to be be more diplomatic
Sorry for not being diplomatic in this case, probably my fault.

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That’s a remarkably rich video! :+1:

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If I were to design a program, I would include the manual as a searchable and hyperlinked pdf within the program, and put a little ‘i’ or ‘?’ button next to each module linking to the relevant section in the pdf. The alternate would be for that button to display the tooltip. I personally don’t like tooltips that automatically display on mouse hover.

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Some programs put the tooltips directly on the element you interact with.

In Filmulator I made sure anything you might leave your mouse stationary over when interacting, like sliders, don’t activate the tooltip.

If I add this button I might make normal tooltips delayed a bit longer so they get in the way less.