YaST/Style Guide/Introduction

From openSUSE

About This Style Guide

The main reason why this style guide exists is, that we want to improve the YaST usability. Unfortunately, usability is sometimes used as a buzz word or is vaguely explained by the efficient, effective and satisfying completion of a task.

Fortunately, there are at least some concrete aspects which are covered by usability:

• suitability for the task: Does the software support users in performing their tasks?
• self-descriptiveness: Is the software self-explaining and understandable?
• controllability: Can a user influence how to work with the software?
• conformity with user expectations: Does the software fit user's expectations and habits by using a consistent and coherent design?
• error tolerance: how easily can a user recover from errors?
• suitability for individualization: Can users adapt the software to their personal needs without too much effort?
• suitability for learning: Does the design of the software provide an easy way of learning new functions?

The style guide helps to make the YaST user interface consistent and achieve these goals.

What All This Actually Means

A consistent YaST UI (User Interface) will:

• help user to navigate through different YaST modules following the same procedures.
• allow user to focus on the task not the tool.