Dear Thomas
At 04:16 08.12.2004, you wrote:
...
>And may I also shameless advertise my own beta version of a comparison of
>several CAQDAS and some possible substitutes:
>
>http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/research/software/caqdas_comparison.html
Good work, but speaking of beta versions: although the version of ATLAS.ti
5 you used (Release Candidate 2, RC2) for the above comparison was not beta
anymore, the final release (June) was quite another boost in performance,
stability and ease.
Because of the unexpected demand for our new version, we needed to press
another stock of CDs only a few month later and took the chance to
incorporate even more improvements originating from users' feedback.
So I would like to ask you to either check the final release or to somehow
clarify that the version used for the comparison was not the final release.
Let me add a few comments as regards content:
Under "Ergonomics" you state: "The biggest advantage of computer-assisted
content analysis is its capability to handle bulk data. " In my view
qualitative data analysis is NOT identical to bulk "word crunching" content
analysis, although most programs incorporate some content analysis (and
even statistical) technology.
You write "the easier intelligible a program is, the more likely it is that
you will know all of its options, as most people do not tend to read
through the manual. " The problem is, that reading the manual or looking at
the online help is mandatory for the more complex or tedious tasks. Easy to
learn and not needing a manual may be feasible for trivial or conceptually
common software but not for the more ambitious tools. We (you) should
encourage users of such systems that its not a toy, but something which
must be seriously learned, just like SPSS...
The screen dump you chose for illustrating the "bad interface" of ATLAS.ti
is really ugly and with these colors truly in support of your theses!-)
In your categorization of how Windows are handled you are using "tedious,
non-standard, no shortcut keys" as a value. Would you mind stating the
"standard" as you see it? We were putting much effort in assimilating the
Windows standard in our interface however good or bad it may be.
I especially liked "ATLAS.ti, whose search window (shown below) contains
buttons labeled with a single letter and which clutters its interface with
a button, whose sole function is the production of a computer voice
proclaiming "I hate computers," does certainly not deliver a groundbreaking
interface with respect to ease of use ".
And we always thought that ease of the interface and accessibility to all
relevant items in the context of coding, memoing and networking was one of
the greatest virtues of ATLAS.ti!
And for the less humorous we even offer a preferences switch "Be serious"
to get rid of (most) of such useless things like "I hate computers,"!-)
However, in many situations with computers, I would rather have this button
available .....
So far for now.
Kind regards
- Thomas
>HTH,
>
>Thomas
_______________________________________________________________________
„Computers, like every technology, are a vehicle for the transformation
of tradition“ (Winograd & Flores, 1987)
ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH - Berlin - www.atlasti.com
Dipl.-Psych. Dipl.-Inform. Thomas Muhr (CEO) - [log in to unmask]
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