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

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org] 
> On Behalf Of Peter Trudelle
> Sent: 20 July 2004 07:13
> To: Ilan Volow
> Cc: <Sigia-l at asis.org> <Sigia-l at asis.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Open Source Usability -- curable?
> 
> I was involved in Netscape development through Mozilla for 
> several years, during which I came to the conclusion that the 
> name "Open Source" 
> really says it all.  The majority of developers/projects are 
> open to source code, and not much else; they have had to be 
> that way to survive thus far.  Their user base is almost 
> entirely the technical elite or extremely advanced users, who 
> have a high tolerance for poor usability. 
> In fact they often consider it a badge of honor that they can 
> master it, thinking it more powerful than software that has 
> been "dumbed down" for 
> "lusers".   

As an aside to this, and not to reduce the value of what you're saying,
I recently read Jef Raskin's "The Humane Interface." He's one of the
first generation of HCI people that really went back to first principles
in the 70's and 80's with the design of the early Macs, amongst other
things. 

One of the things that struck me about his approach is that he's not
that interested in "learnability" but "usability" in the sense that you
often have to learn how to use an interface in order for that interface
to really help you. This seems to be an approach that's been lost in the
last ten or fifteen years.

With the web, most HCI/UX discourse seems to be around "learnability."
Speaking as somebody who secretly thinks the bash CLUI is one of the
most usable inventions ever (for me), I've often been interested in
spotting the difference and thinking about what that means. 

Jonathan


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