[Sigia-l] Open Source Usability -- curable?

[Laurie Gray]

I have to agree with the usability issues inherent in Open Source software.
My husband used to work for Red Hat. I was involved - on my own time - with
exactly one user research event, and this is after my company spent
considerable time and effort trying to get "into" RHAT on a
client/consultant basis. They were simply not interested in any input or
value we might be able to provide.

My husband and I used to debate the usability conundrum on a regular basis.
His point was that many Linux systems, for example, were created for folks
who were techno-gurus, interested in running servers and totally comfortable
with command line interfaces. I felt that if RHAT was to make any progress
in the desktop market, usability needed to be addressed. He countered with
the argument that RHAT would never go after the desktop market. LOL.

I have seen that RHAT has "interaction design teams" but I have never seen a
job ad or heard from anyone inside that there are user experience
professionals on staff. This leads me to think that the interaction design
team is focused on the functional relationships of components with an
emphasis on performance rather than user experience on the front end.

I was on one list that focused on the usability of KDE. It was pretty high
traffic and I did not gain much benefit from it. It seemed like any of the
open source development efforts were very much focused on the "N of one"
paradigm e.g. "I am the developer and so I am building it how it would work
best for ME." To me, that is the biggest usability hurdle that any products
in the Open Source realm need to cross. In answer to your original question,
I don't think that Open Source usability is immediately curable, and it may
not need to be as long as the developers are working on a product for a
homogeneous population. IMO, when the products move to the desktop and are
geared for more heterogeneous populations, usability needs to be directly
addressed.

One possible solution to this problem might be the creation of standards
groups to help guide Open Source developers. Perhaps style guides or design
guidelines would help. Then again, I have seen a certain renegade mentality
in the Open Source community and there is a strong possibility that such
standards would be disregarded. In any event, the creation of such bodies
would need to be voluntary and somewhat "open source" as well, I think.

Laurie